Thursday, 2 May 2024

Triple Zero Victoria

Rikkie-Lee TYRRELL (Northern Victoria) (18:56): (867) My adjournment matter today is for the Minister for Emergency Services. During the regional sitting of this house in Echuca I had the opportunity to speak with our wonderful, hardworking paramedics. Our amazing paramedics are facing burnout due to the demanding nature of their job and the shortage in the workforce. They have little to no work–life balance and feel they are being ignored by the Allan Labor government, with paramedics reportedly working dangerous amounts of hours of unpaid overtime. Speaking with James, he outlined to me one of the major issues they are having and are hoping to have resolved quickly. He described the failings in the dispatch process: minor health concerns are being triaged as priority 1, and people with major health concerns are being dropped down the list. James is concerned that this is happening due to the lack of medical training and experience of the call takers in the Triple Zero Victoria call centre. The action I seek is for the minister to commit to working with Ambulance Victoria to install staff with medical training at the Triple Zero call centres and more thorough training for call centre staff to ensure better working conditions for our hardworking paramedics.