Page 232 - Week 01 - Wednesday, 13 February 1991
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Mr Berry: I like the word "relative"; it was relative.
MR HUMPHRIES: It is all relative, Mr Berry. It is obvious that anybody who might be concerned about their own ability to use the Ambulance Service would be a little bit alarmed by the statements they hear coming from the Opposition and would be alarmed about their capacity to receive prompt treatment from the ACT Ambulance Service. That is a matter that we have to take with some concern. It is a matter that has to be dealt with by this Assembly in a very responsible fashion, and I have to say that I cannot see that Mr Berry's comments contribute to a clear understanding by people in the ACT of the state of affairs in the ACT Ambulance Service.
I maintain, as I maintained last year, that the Government is providing the ACT community with adequate ambulance cover. I made clear then, and I make clear now, that I consider there to be substantial room for improvement, just as there has been substantial improvement in the last 12 months under this Government. I do not wish to let anybody labour under the misapprehension that in some fashion the ACT Government is complacent about the situation in the Ambulance Service, and in a moment I will go through and detail the steps that we as a government have taken to improve the quality of ambulance services in the ACT.
The ACT Ambulance Service operates an agreed minimum crewing level adequate to provide four on-duty ambulances 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It may not be that on all occasions there are sufficient crews to operate those four on-duty ambulances sitting in an ambulance station. It may in some cases be that those people are in training or otherwise available to man those ambulances. If one defines our capacity in terms of having four on-duty ambulances - that is, people sitting in the stations waiting to answer calls - one naturally will find the service stretched. But I think that is an unrealistic expectation, and in fact the ACT can do very well with the resources as set at the present level. Of course, we have to pay attention to emerging needs, and if those emerging needs require further ambulances we have to identify those and act on them. I do not believe at this stage that we can prove that there is a requirement for additional ambulance crews beyond the processes already embarked on by the Government, and I will go on to detail those in a moment.
The service is staffed at a level of 69 officers. That figure is significant because, if we compare it with the staffing level in existence at this time last year, we will see that the level then was only 62 staff. In other words, this Government has been able to increase the staffing level in the ACT Ambulance Service by seven. It might not seem like a lot of people, but it is in the order of 12 per cent of the ACT Ambulance Service. It is a very welcome increase, I think, and it is disturbing, but not
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