SA Ambulance Service

Mr PICTON (Kaurna) (15:07): My question is to the Premier. Does the Premier believe it's acceptable that paramedics should have to work 10 hours straight without a break? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

Mr PICTON: A paramedic, Craig, called into FIVEaa this morning and said that he was dispatched to 16 cases over a night shift and travelled 260 kilometres by himself that night over a 12-hour shift. He thankfully finished on time but didn't have a break until the 10-hour mark. According to him:

So post all this driving you've still got to obviously make those decisions that a lot of the guys were talking about earlier using a lot of brain power…to actually handle these cases to the best of your ability and literally you have got people's lives in your hands.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL (Dunstan—Premier) (15:08): As I have stated in this place on many occasions, paramedics in South Australia do an outstanding job and they always put their patients' lives first and that does mean sometimes there are, in exceptional circumstances, these types of situations.