City’s ambo dispatch ‘putting lives at risk’

Kim Waters
PARAMEDICS have passed a vote of no confidence in Geelong’s ambulance dispatch centre, according to their state representative.
Ambulance Employees Australia state secretary Steve McGhie said the centre had earned the thumbs down from Ballarat paramedics after their dispatch facility was transferred to Geelong in April.
The paramedics were preparing to meet managers, health and safety representatives and MPs after passing the vote late last week, he said.
Mr McGhie believed the vote highlighted how shortfalls in Geelong ambulance services were now spreading beyond the city to affect other areas.
“Ballarat paramedics are being dispatched to cases in Geelong on code one emergencies and are being kept there for considerable periods of time, up to four hours. This clearly shows there are not enough resources in Geelong and it leaves Ballarat desperately short of paramedics.
“Moving the call centre to Geelong has also meant that the centre is dispatching ambulances for the Geelong area as well and Ballarat and the Grampians (in western Victoria), which has doubled their workload.”
Mr McGhie said call centre operators and paramedics were “understaffed, under-resourced and overworked”, putting patients lives at risk.
“There are also instances of ambulances being sent to the wrong address,” he said.
“These problems have been going on for a while now and they were highlighted as potential issues before the call centre was moved but Ambulance Victoria pushed ahead with the relocation anyway.”
Mr McGhie said Ambulance Victoria would close the Geelong centre after a new dispatch facility opened in Ballarat next year.
The new centre would dispatch all regional emergency services including police, fire and ambulance, he said.
“Crews from other areas will still be coming to Geelong and it’s going to result in increased fatigue for the paramedics and greater delays for patients,” he said.
“The new centre is not going to fix this problem – the only thing that will is more ambulance crews to cover the workload.
“The longer we wait for that the longer people’s lives will be put at risk.”
Ambulance Victoria specialist services general manager Mark Rogers said he was aware of “shortcomings” in the system.
‘I know our paramedics are working under pressure but we’re about to the start the first of 234 additional paramedics for regional Victoria, which will be a big help in terms of reducing overtime, improving rostering and helping with resources and response times.
‘We’ve never hidden away from the amount of work we have to do but we have told our staff the process that will be involved and look forward to continuing to work with them.”