Rochester Ambulance service petition tabled in parliament, asks state government to review level of ambulance services

Nationals Member for Murray Plains Peter Walsh submitted the petition on Tuesday, which attracted close to 2000 signatures, following a temporary, nine-month arrangement where two-paramedic crews were made available for the town.

From late September last year to early May, two paramedics responded to call-outs, rather than the usual practice of one paramedic and an ambulance community officer.

Ambulance community officers are first responders employed on a casual basis to provide advanced first aid in communities with low caseloads.

Loddon Mallee acting regional director Andy Roughton last month said Ambulance Victoria evaluated data for the nine-month period and found no difference in response time performance.

The average response time to the most urgent call-outs in the last quarter of 2017-18 in Campaspe Shire was faster than both the previous quarter and the same quarter last year, with 68.2 per cent of Code 1 calls responded to within the 15-minute target.

In July, Rochester residents gathered to voice their concern about changes to their town’s paramedic staffing system, which they believed would leave members of the community at risk in medical emergencies.

It’s understood AV will revert back to the traditional staffing model for Rochester following the trial.

Read more: Rochester paramedic trial made ‘no material difference’ in response times

Ambulance Employees Australia secretary Danny Hill said the system of using ambulance community officers led to delays, as once they got the call-out, they had to get changed and get to the station.

Mr Hill said paramedics' skills had increased significantly and they were now conducting highly skilled work out in the field.

He said this was "really difficult" to do when there was only one qualified paramedic in the vehicle.

"We say all vehicles should have two at all times," he said.

Mr Hill confirmed members from various locations had told the union that they had difficulties accessing ambulance community officers.

He said there was also the issue of paramedics working long hours, and when there were only two in a small town, they had no choice but to respond when on call.

Mr Hill said every ambulance in Melbourne was staffed by two paramedics, but this standard was not applied in rural areas.

"There's an inequity of service to rural and regional patients," he said.

Mr Hill said there had been improvements in AV, but there needed to be more investment in smaller rural stations.

Mr Roughton on Thursday said the resources at Rochester are based on workload and demand, and these are continually reviewed as this changes over time.

“The Rochester branch is staffed 24 hours a day to meet the needs of the local community and are supported locally by Ambulance Community Officers and by branches in neighbouring towns when required,” he said.

“ACOs undergo formal and continuous training to ensure that the communities they serve receive a high level of clinical care. This is an established and successful arrangement that occurs at a number of branches in rural or remote parts of Victoria.”

Minister for Ambulance Services Jill Hennessy said the placement of paramedics was ultimately a matter for Ambulance Victoria.

“Our single-crew Ambulance Community Officers undergo the highest standard of training so that they can give our rural communities the highest quality of treatment and care,” she said.

“Peter Walsh and the Liberal Nationals went to war with our paramedics and plunged Victoria’s ambulance system into crisis, prompting response times to become the worst on the mainland. We won’t be lectured to by them.”