By Corey Everitt
Minister for Ambulance Services Mary-Anne Thomas paid a visit to local paramedics at Pakenham Ambulance Station last week to gather insight and ideas from local first-responders’ on-the-ground experience.
Ms Thomas came out to Main Street Pakenham on Wednesday 22 November. She was invited by Pakenham MP Emma Vulin for a tour of the station and a discussion with local paramedics.
“It’s fantastic to be here with Emma, now a year in as the Member for Pakenham, but important it’s an opportunity for me as Minister for Ambulance Services just to come and speak with our paramedics on the ground,” Ms Thomas said.
“To listen to them and hear about the challenges they’re facing, but most importantly of all, listening to their ideas about how we can better support our paramedics.”
Previously on the day Ms Thomas visited Cranbourne North Ambulance Station. These visits are a part of building strategies to better help paramedics still emerging out of the difficulties of the last several years.
“Coming out of the emergency phase of Covid, the health system is still feeling the pressure that was associated with those times, there is obviously work to be done to ensure that we improve our ambulance response and I’ll look to our paramedic workforce for ideas,” Ms Thomas said.
Ambulance Victoria regional director Vanessa Gorman also joined Ms Thomas in her visit.
“We’ve been out with the minister on a number of occasions and I think our paramedics are still very valued and heard that our Minister for Health would take the time to come speak with them,” Ms Gorman said.
“Not just to hear about the issues, but hear about the ideas and the innovation that can be born on an operational level.”
Some measures have come out of liaison with paramedics, such as the Victorian Virtual Emergency Department service. It connects patients with non-life threatening conditions to emergency clinicians online, an alternative which frees up much needed space for paramedics on the road.
“It is a challenging station for ours in particular because we are in such a growth corridor. With the growth, they are experiencing higher demand in call outs,” Ms Vulin said.
“I’m very happy to have the minister so we can better support them.”
Pakenham Ambulance Station opened on Main Street in 2017, it currently houses 42 paramedics using three trucks.
In Cardinia paramedics responded to 1721 Code 1 cases between July and September this year, a 4.6 per cent increase from a year ago.
The average response time was 17 minutes and 20 seconds, though still above the standard of 15 minutes, it represents a steady improvement coming out of the Covid pandemic with an improvement of over a minute in the average time last quarter.
