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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2022-11-17 Daily Xml
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Question Time

SA Ambulance Service

S.E. ANDREWS (Gibson) (14:44): My question is to the Minister for Health and Wellbeing. Can the minister update the house on resourcing for the South Australian Ambulance Service?

The Hon. C.J. PICTON (Kaurna—Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (14:44): I thank the member for Gibson for her question. I certainly can update the house in relation to resourcing for the SA Ambulance Service. I know the interest of her local electorate in the inner southern suburbs, in particular, to make sure that we get more ambos on the road to respond to cases in the community. We know that we have been through a period in the past four years or so of a war with our ambos, where there was report after report, consideration by the government—

Mrs Hurn interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Schubert!

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: —that more ambulance resources were needed but was absolutely ignored under the previous government—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: —and that is now being completely reversed.

Mr Tarzia interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Hartley!

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: We are now investing record amounts into our Ambulance Service and with a pathway for additional resources going in right now.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The minister has the call.

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: I know members will be very pleased to know—in fact in the member for Dunstan's own electorate we have already put additional ambulance resources into the Norwood area. This is not something I received any representations from the member for Dunstan about, but we have done it anyway because it was important for those areas—additional emergency ambulance, additional emergency service support and an ambulance already on the road. The good news for the member for Gibson and also for the member for Elder is that next week we are going to have another two ambulances on the road in the inner southern suburbs.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: I am asked whereabouts they are going to be.

The SPEAKER: Order! The minister has the call.

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: These will be based in Edwardstown and Marion.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The member for Chaffey is on three warnings. The member for Schubert is warned for a second time.

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: Two additional 24-hour ambulances into the inner southern suburbs providing additional emergency support for people in life-threatening situations. But that's not all, of course, because we have another additional 24-hour ambulance that will be starting before the end of the year in the member for Light's electorate in the Gawler area, which is another critical area with a lack of supply of ambulances, with only one ambulance serving that area.

Before the end of the year, that's another 44 additional paramedics on the road serving the community, and that will be five additional ambulances on the road 24 hours a day since we were elected. Of course, we also have additional—

Mrs Hurn interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: —dispatchers going in, 10 additional dispatchers who have gone into the headquarters of SA Ambulance. We also have now done the work in terms of the rollout, over the course of four years, of our commitment for 350 ambos across the state.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Schubert is warned for a final time.

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: Across every ambulance station in South Australia there is a blueprint listed of where those additional crews are going, and the time frames for when they are happening, because we will be recruiting extra ambos in this state. Previously, we had a situation—

An honourable member interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Chaffey!

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: —where we graduated many more ambos in South Australia than we actually employed in SA Ambulance. People had to go interstate or overseas to get a job or work in a different area after they graduated as a paramedic. We will now be able to offer these people jobs here in South Australia, working as paramedics, improving response times for the community across South Australia, meeting our election commitments, meaning that when people call 000 they can get those ambulances with a response time that's not like what happened over the past four years—they have just gone down and down and down.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! Before I call the member for Schubert, I observe that the members for Chaffey, Schubert and Florey are on three warnings.

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