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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2023-06-28 Daily Xml
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Motions

International Paramedics Day

Ms HUTCHESSON (Waite) (11:00): I move:

That this house—

(a) recognises International Paramedics Day is 8 July 2023;

(b) acknowledges the crucial role paramedics play, putting the interest and wellbeing of others first;

(c) thanks paramedics and ambulance staff for their tireless work in the most challenging of circumstances during the COVID-19 pandemic;

(d) condemns the former Liberal government for failing to appropriately fund and resource South Australian ambulance workers; and

(e) reaffirms the Malinauskas Labor government's commitment to supporting and appropriately funding ambulance staff.

Mr Speaker, 8 July marks International Paramedics Day, a celebration of the important and at times life-saving work of paramedics and first responders across the globe. First launched in 2022, International Paramedics Day occurs annually on the eighth. I am advised that this day was chosen as it is the birthday of Baron Dominique-Jean Larrey, a Napoleonic military surgeon, who is described as the father of ambulance services.

Inspired by Napoleon's use of fast-moving artillery, Baron Larrey created a horse-drawn carriage that was able to quickly move injured soldiers from the battlefield to field hospitals where they could be triaged according to injury seriousness. Triage is also another of Baron Larrey's innovations. Until that point, wounded soldiers had been left on the battlefield until the cessation of the battle, causing many to die.

In 2023, paramedicine has come a long way. Since 1 December 2018, paramedicine, and the use of the title 'paramedic', has been a registered profession that is regulated in a similar fashion to that seen with medical practitioners and nurses. In the 2021-22 financial year, there were 1,489 registered paramedics in South Australia working across multiple sectors, including through the Ambulance Service, but also paramedics employed by both private and public healthcare providers, the mining industry and First Nations bodies. Indeed, their expertise in out-of-hospital care is highly regarded, with Jobs and Skills Australia projecting that the number of jobs for paramedics will have increased by approximately 8 per cent between 2021 and 2026.

In 2021, the Reader's Digest annual survey of 3,000 people named paramedics as the third most trusted profession in Australia, only beaten by doctors and nurses. In 2022, they held ground in the Governance Institute of Australia poll as the third most trusted profession, just to be pipped at the post by our firefighters. We know that we can rely on the paramedics and ambulance officers. They are a special breed of human willing to work long hours to be on call to help us when we really need it.

This government takes access to ambulances seriously. Every South Australian deserves to receive an ambulance when requested within a clinically reasonable time. Indeed, under this government, response times of priority 1 and priority 2 incidents have improved and continue to improve. In January last year, when ambulance response times for priority 1 were at 47 per cent, things were dire. That is an ambulance only arriving within eight minutes of the call 47 per cent of the time. It is currently at 68 per cent; that is, 20 per cent more calls to 000 for priority 1 events are seeing an ambulance arrive within eight minutes, and I can vouch for this.

Our family have had to rely on SAAS quite a bit lately for my father, who has been struggling with illness. No matter when we called, the ambos arrived quickly. They were professional, kind and incredibly caring. In Goolwa, in Glenalta—it does not matter which crew—they are all angels. Arriving within minutes of the call, in one case within four minutes of the call, they arrived on the scene.

For the five times our family has had to call for SAAS in the last year, there have been no delays, no worrying where they are, and this goes to the improvements we have achieved in response times across the network. Whilst our family will not be calling on SAAS for my father anymore, I know that he would want me to thank them from the bottom of his heart for all the help they gave him over the past few months. They were there when we needed them.

Not only have I had to rely on paramedics for our own family, as a CFS volunteer we work closely with SAAS, whether it be assisting them with patient transfers, working at an incident with them or for us to receive their help should one of our own require it. Firstly, I again look back and thank Blackwood CFS for assisting on multiple occasions with my own family, helping SAAS to carry my father to the ambulance.

Our first responders work together to rescue those in need, so it is important that we understand each other at an incident. Just last week, on Monday, at our CFS training we were joined by an ambulance crew who come out to stations to help us better understand what they do, how we can help them and the patients so that when required we are not faced with an unfamiliar situation.

They talked to us about their rig, where they store their things in case we need to fetch something for them, and we also practised CPR and handing over patients. It was so valuable to learn and better understand, and it was timely. Following this, our brigade swung into action on Friday just gone when there was a serious accident. We were very glad to see our friends in green arrive to assist the drivers of the vehicles. They were brilliant, and I know that the drivers were very appreciative of the care they received.

Our paramedics and ambos go above and beyond when they are at work, but I can tell you they never really shut off from their commitment to community and their passion to help people. At almost every accident I have attended, you can almost count on an off-duty paramedic, nurse, doctor or firefighter being one of the first cars to come along. Almost every time when you arrive on scene, someone will be there assisting. It is a sense of duty, I guess. They do not have to reveal who they are, they do not have to do it, but they do it, and quite often it is when they are on their way home from a long shift.

I was recently at a dinner where an attendee was having breathing difficulties, and they had possibly passed out. In keeping with what I have just said, on my own table there was an ambulance 000 operator and a trained nurse, along with an intensive care nurse ready to spring into action and assist. The ambulance arrived and the patient was taken off to Flinders and the dinner resumed. I thanked the two ladies for their help and asked if that had ever happened to them before. They advised that they are always willing to help and always ready to step into action. These are the kinds of people who take up this profession.

Recently, the government launched the GoodSAM app. This innovation sends an alert to registered responders if there is a cardiac arrest near them. The responder can accept the call for help and head to the scene to provide emergency care while an ambulance is on its way. The app launched in South Australia in December, with SA Ambulance Service staff and volunteers initially able to sign up as responders.

More than 540 SAAS staff have already registered as GoodSAM responders since its introduction. The two ladies from my dinner signed up immediately when we talked about it—just incredible people. More recently, SA's 84,000 registered health practitioners and tertiary healthcare students can also register to help. GoodSAM responders will only be alerted to cardiac arrest cases, and their role is to provide CPR while ambulances are on their way, along with defibrillation if an AED is available. GoodSAM will also later be extended to emergency services personnel and people with first-aid training.

We know that our ambulance officers and paramedics are under pressure—they have been for a long time—but, having spoken to some of them recently and also spoken to their union, it is clear that they know our government is throwing everything at the issue, and for that they feel some sense of relief, that there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Prior to us coming to government, there was no light. They were calling out for help, but they were met with nothing from the then government. So desperate were they that they wanted our community to know about it. They took the chalk and they wrote on their rigs trying to tell their stories.

When I attended an incident back in January 2022 in Stirling, the ambulance was there and it was the only one in the Mount Barker area, as you would realise. The ambulance was there, it covered 35,000 people and it was in Stirling, not in Mount Barker. Through all their efforts to try to let the government know they needed help, those opposite were only interested in removing the chalk.

In March 2022, just before the election, the Marshall Liberal government succeeded temporarily in its attempts to gag ambos from writing public safety messages on ambulances. The Department of Treasury and Finance issued a dispute notification with the South Australian Employment Tribunal on 24 February seeking that ambos cease and desist from chalking public safety messages on ambulances, stop wearing union T-shirts and resume billing patients for ambulance call-outs.

Our ambos were calling out for help but were held to ransom by the then Treasurer. Sure, he offered to employ 50 extra ambulance officers, but not until they negotiated their enterprise agreement. The then government wanted to change the ambos' shifts and change where they could have their lunch. Our ambos were crying out for help, and those opposite were only worried about where they would be taking their breaks.

Our community was not seeing ambulances arrive when they really needed them. Those opposite were haggling over shifts, yet they stand now suggesting we are not doing everything we can to help. Our government is investing in 350 additional ambos statewide—not 50—and is not trading off their entitlements. There are 350 new ambulance officers to help lessen the stress that existing crews experience, ensuring ambulances can arrive within a clinically reasonable time. This investment includes 315 paramedics and ambulance officers.

This includes not just within the Adelaide metropolitan area but also the Adelaide Hills and Limestone Coast, just to name two. It does include Mount Barker station, which will now see a new ambulance station, 12 extra paramedics and an additional 12-hour regional medical transfer crew comprising three paramedics and three ambulance officers will also join next year. That one ambulance that had to cover the whole area can now breathe a sigh of relief.

This investment is a testament to the Malinauskas Labor government's commitment to our ambos. We stand by our ambos, supporting them to do their job for our communities, unlike those opposite, who refused to commit to the vital resources that our ambos need to do their job safely. We are also building a new station at Edwardstown. This will be built on a 3,275 square metre parcel of land at the Repat Health Precinct on the corner of Daws Road and Francis Street, Daw Park. It will house the 16-person Edwardstown paramedic crew, which came online last November as part of the government's quick actions to ease ambulance pressure.

The station will also house 12 emergency support service ambulance officers for Edwardstown, who are due to come online in 2024. This will ease pressure on the Mitcham station, which looks after my own community and my own electorate along with the Marion station, providing faster response times for my community when we really need it. Our government is absolutely committed to supporting our ambos, who in turn support our communities when they really need it. International Paramedics Day is 8 July, and I know you will join me, Mr Speaker, in thanking every single ambo for all they do whether they are on duty or not.

Debate adjourned on motion of Mr Odenwalder.

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