WHILE the new State Government says it will honour its pre-election pledge for new ambulance officers for the South East, it could another two years before they arrive.
The government made a pre-election promise to employ an additional 24 paramedic and ambulance officers within the region but may not be until 2024.
Health Minister Chris Picton said work behind the scenes was occurring however, the ambulance officers would be recruited in the coming years.
“A key part of our policy is to make sure we can address what is significant demand that ambulances have been facing and make sure people in the Limestone Coast have access to the service they need,” Mr Picton said.
“Year by year there will be additional ambulances set to start and we do have timeframes for the Limestone Coast.
“We are now undertaking the detailed work in terms of recruitment of South Australian Ambulance Service to make sure we can meet those timeframes, we are also looking at paramedics and the opportunity to scale this up because we now have double the number of people in Flinders University who are able to get jobs.”
Mr Picton said across the State the targets were expected to be met with the government scheduling to ensure they are able to train the extra staff and get them into the job sooner.
“We are unable to just click our fingers and get it done; it will be a four year effort but we have started immediately, have set out schedules of additional demand, areas of great need and we are certainly committed to getting the additional ambulance officers in the Limestone Coast as we know there is high pressure in the area,” he said.
