Paramedic Frank Hofmann spoke at a community meeting in Rochester on Tuesday night where residents questioned Ambulance Victoria about its continued decision not to provide two-officer crews for the town.

He gave direct feedback to the acting regional director about the stresses in the role, and how one paramedic has left the service and another is on long-term WorkCover leave due to abuse while on a job in Rochester.

A single paramedic had been required to attend 18 callouts in eight weeks, the majority carried out by Mr Hofmann.

He said the push to get a second paramedic for Rochester had his full support.

“As far as working as a single responder, I can certainly make it quite clear that it’s difficult to do our job when we only have one pair of hands,” he said.

“With advancements in treatments, it’s making it harder to complete what we’re there for and that’s to get the best outcomes for our patients.

“The added stress level is immense.”

Related: ‘Save our ambos’: Rochester residents rally for ambulance services

Community officers accompany paramedics, and drive the ambulances, but Mr Hofmann said there needed to be paramedics with high-level skills to be able to administer modern life-saving drugs, such as clot busting medication.

Residents questioned Ambulance Victoria about whether an additional paramedic would improve response times, if it was fair that they pay the same rates as metropolitan users for a reduced service, and if the ever-increasing workload of paramedics was being taken into account.

Mr Hofmann agreed that Rochester residents should demand better services.

“You’re paying subscriptions so why are you getting a second class or second rate service? I believe it is that,” he said.

Ambulance Victoria acting regional director Loddon-Mallee Andy Roughton was questioned extensively during the community meeting and defended the lack of a two-paramedic team in Rochester.

He said it was about distributing resources in an efficient way.

“If someone turns around to me and says, ‘hey we’re going to give you more resources of ambulances’, I’m not going to say ‘no’,” Mr Roughton said.

“But we’ve got to work out the practicality of that.

“In Rochester, the ambulance you currently have is available an average of 70 per cent of the time.

“By increasing resources, this doesn’t necessarily mean you’re increasing the availability. It just means you have two ambulances ready and waiting to go.

“What is the actual demand profile? What is the best way we can service that area using the resources we have?”

The meeting came after a petition with 2000 signatures from Rochester – representing 66 per cent of the town – was presented to the state government last month calling for a review of the level of ambulance services for the town.

Campaspe Shire councillor Leigh Wilson facilitated the meeting and asked questions on behalf of the community.

He said it came down to funding.

“It starts at the state government,” Cr Wilson said.

“We’re fighting for pieces of the pie. Maybe the pie needs to be bigger.”

Related: Rochester paramedic trial made ‘no material difference’ to response times

Ambulance union assistant secretary Olga Bartasek agreed that more paramedics were needed to end single-paramedic stations.

“There’s 48 stations ambulance stations around that have single officers at the moment,” she said.

“We’re saying it’ll take about 100 paramedics to be put on to make all of those two officers.

“Now 100 paramedics might sound like a lot, but in the scheme of things, over the last three years the government has put on 650 to 700.

“A lot of those go to metropolitan Melbourne  but certainly there’s quite a few that have gone into the regional areas.

“You’re paying the same taxes as people in metropolitan Melbourne, so you deserve the same quality of care that people in Melbourne are getting.”

Ambulance Victoria will consider feedback from the session but could not promise any changes.

One story told to the public meeting demonstrated the issues with operating ambulance services in Rochester, and similar towns in regional Victoria.

A woman in her 90s suffered a fall in her yard in Rochester on Tuesday morning, just a short distance from the town’s ambulance station.

An ambulance was called, but they were given a one-hour response time.

Her friend, in her 80s, walked “around the corner” to the ambulance station where officers were inside. They “immediately attended to the lady”.

Mr Roughton said the ambulance was likely the last available in the region and could have been on standby for a critical incident.

“Sometimes while a person may require an ambulance, they might not need it instantly,” he said.

“We make sure the nearest ambulance is available for the sickest patients and it might require Echuca to come down and pick up a patient.”