Media release – Rebecca White MP, Tasmanian Labor Leader; Anita Dow MP, Shadow Minister for Health, Mental Health and Wellbeing, 2 March 2024
Labor’s Paramedics Plan for a Better Future
Quotes attributable to Labor Leader Rebecca White:
Labor’s Paramedics Plan for a Better Future will ensure Tasmanians can access emergency care when they need it, by implementing the Ambulance Expert Review in full by 2032.
As part of this, we will employ 168 permanent paramedics across the state, including 88 by mid-2025.
Since the Liberals came to office 10 years ago, ambulance ramping has more than doubled, meaning our dedicated paramedics are unable to help people in their time of need.
Under the Liberals, ambulance response times have blown out from 11.4 minutes in 2014 to 14.9 minutes in 2024. And we know this is worse for people living in regional areas.
Quotes attributable to Shadow Health Minister Anita Dow:
To ensure paramedics have a seat at the table, Labor will establish a Chief Paramedic position as part of the health leadership team.
We will keep our graduate paramedics in the state by fixing the challenging recruitment practices that make us lose talent to the mainland.
And we will invest $45 million to upgrade ambulance stations across the state.
After 10 years of the Liberals, our ambulance service has been run into the ground and any remaining goodwill with our paramedic workforce is all but exhausted.
If the Liberals haven’t fixed these issues in 10 years they never will. Don’t give them 14.
It’s time for a better future for Tasmania’s ambulance service.
Key Facts of Labor’s Paramedic Plan:
-
- Employ 168 new paramedic staff
- Provide a $45 million infrastructure fund for upgrading stations and vehicles
- Increase community paramedics to 8 new locations, 3 within the first year
- Create a Chief Paramedic Position
Media release – Anita Dow MP, Shadow Health Minister, 2 March 2024
Rockliff’s health comments take gaslighting to a new level
Jeremy Rockliff’s comments in response to Labor’s Paramedics Plan for a Better Future are gobsmacking, and show that the Premier will stop at no lengths in his attempts to gaslight Tasmanians.
After 10 years of a Liberal Government, Tasmania’s health system is the worst it’s ever been.
Productivity Commission data released last month shows Tasmanians are now routinely waiting more than half an hour for ambulances – an increase of 10 minutes statewide and a shocking 13 minutes in Hobart since the Liberals came to power.
Elective surgery wait times are up 20 per cent, with 40 per cent of urgent patients having extended wait times – by far the worst in the country.
Less than half of all emergency ED patients are seen on time, compared to 85 per cent when the Liberals were elected.
And wait times for dental care have more than doubled, with 50 per cent of patients waiting nearly four years for an appointment.
Despite this terrible record – Jeremy Rockliff today had the temerity to say Labor was “late to the party”, and that “Tasmanians want action now when it comes to health.”
The Liberals have had 10 years to come to the party, and instead have left Tasmania with the worst health system in Australia.
Tasmanians can’t afford to give the Liberals 14 years.
Media release – Guy Barnett, Attorney General, Minister for Justice, Minister for Health, Minister for Veterans’ Affairs, Member for Lyons, Labor’s Paramedic Promise On Life Support
Labor’s empty promise on paramedics won’t help Tasmanians get the health care they deserve now.
They’re promising to hire 168 paramedics, but not until 2032.
That’s ten years and three elections away.
And there’s absolutely no mention of how it will pay for the 88 paramedics Labor says it will hire by 2025.
Labor is again shaking its magic money tree, desperately hoping Tasmanians fall for their latest hoax.
Only a majority Rockliff Liberal Government has a 2030 Strong Plan for Tasmania’s Future that will provide real fully funded, fully costed improvements to our health system.
Media release – Rosalie Woodruff MP, Greens Leader, 2 March 2023
Greens Welcome Labor’s Ambulance Service Investment
The Greens welcome Labor’s announcement they will make a serious investment in the ambulance services Tasmania needs if they form government after the election.
Ambulance services in Tasmania are in crisis. Thousands of patients every year are calling triple zero for an emergency, only to have to wait for an extended and unsafe period for an ambulance arrive. We know one in every ten paramedic shifts is going unfilled, and ambulance ramping is out of control.
In the face of this crisis, early last year an expert health consultant provided the Rockliff government with a roadmap to a safer and more reliable ambulance service. In response the Liberals have done nothing.
On the first day of this election campaign the Greens were proud to stand with paramedics and the Health and Community Services Union as we launched our plan to make sure Tasmanians can get an ambulance when they need one. Our plan delivered on the recommendations made by experts and by HACSU, and included hiring 187 paramedics and 50 support staff by 2030, expanding the ambulance fleet, building 6 new ambulance stations, and upgrading 13 more.
It’s really positive to see Labor now announce a plan for serious investment in ambulance services. This plan has some gaps – in particular there’s a crucial need to invest in staff in the dispatch centre, triage, and other support roles – but what’s announced would make a massive difference to the community and to ambulance staff.
With Labor and the Greens both now supporting an evidence-based and positive plan for ambulance services, the pressure is on the Liberals to finally stand up and commit to doing the same.
If the Liberals are happy to back a billion dollar stadium, why won’t they give our ambulance service the support it needs?
