Tuesday, 13 August 2024

Constituency questions

Murray Plains electorate

Peter WALSH (Murray Plains) (14:49): (740) My constituency question is to the Minister for Ambulance Services, and I ask: how many times have ambulance community officers, or ACOs, been used to fill Ambulance Victoria shifts in Echuca over the last six months? Echuca paramedics are constantly being dragged away and held up in Bendigo or Melbourne because the hospitals there are unable to receive their patients immediately. I have got nothing but admiration for the ACOs who work part time to back up, particularly in smaller communities, but they are not meant to be full-time paramedics. The Echuca ambulance district provides services to large parts of southern New South Wales, and it is untenable that Ambulance Victoria is not able to provide enough staff to staff the rosters fully.