Page 1487 - Week 06 - Wednesday, 6 June 2007
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ambulance services and additional ambulances will make a really big difference on the ground. It will also make a significant difference for the staff of our ambulance service because I know that the staff of our ambulance service are very dedicated in the work that they do. They rightly deserve their ranking, in the latest Reader’s Digest assessment of professions, as the most trusted profession in the country.
I have been concerned as minister to see that increasingly our ambulance officers have been unable to take scheduled meal breaks, have been unable to take the time off due to them in their roster, because of demands on overtime or extremely busy shifts. That is a direct result of the issues in terms of increased demand. These additional ambulances will make a difference. They will make sure that we have more ambulances on the ground at those peak times when we need them to respond to the increased demand and in addition we will make sure that we have additional capacity to get people out of hospital, so we are going to continue to encourage that weekend discharge from our hospitals. That will help with issues around bed block and access block in our hospitals. At the same time we will have the capacity to manage the care and safe transport of people who suffer from illnesses associated with their being morbidly obese. It is a very important investment for our ambulance service and, again, one that demonstrates the government’s commitment to improve safety and wellbeing for the Canberra community.
MR SPEAKER: A supplementary question, Mr Gentleman?
MR GENTLEMAN: Thank you, Mr Speaker. Minister, what other measures has the government implemented since its election to address the increase in demand for services from the ACT Ambulance Service?
MR CORBELL: I thank Mr Gentleman for the question. Of course, the latest investment that we announced in the budget yesterday comes on top of an ongoing level of investment for our ambulance service since we came to office. Since Labor has been office we have seen eight intensive care ambulances replaced with new state-of-the-art vehicles which are award winning in their design. In addition, we have provided substantial investment in state-of-the-art cardiac monitor defibrillators.
Again, this has been very important in protecting and assisting the ACT community in the event of heart attack or stroke. We know that what happens in the immediate minutes after a heart attack makes all the difference between life and death. We need to make sure that our ambulances have that capacity, and Labor has invested in making that happen. We have also updated patient stretchers to allow our ambulance staff to more effectively and safely move patients to and from vehicles. This is an important OH&S issue as well as an important safety issue for patients.
So that is Labor’s commitment when it comes to the ambulance service. It is one of more vehicles, more paramedics, better equipment and better support for staff to do their job in protecting our community.
Mr Stanhope: Mr Speaker, I ask that further questions be placed on the notice paper.
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