Paramedics’ overtime ‘blow-out’ causing health problems, union says

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     Ambulance officers in Tasmania with a defibrillator.

Paramedics in Tasmania are being stretched to the limit as they work longer hours to make up for below-demand staffing, says their union and the state’s Labor Opposition.

The Health and Community Services Union (HACSU) and the Opposition say there is a blow-out in the amount of overtime hours worked by paramedics under the current Liberal Government.

HACSU’s state secretary Tim Jacobson said there were too few ambulance paramedics available, and basic rosters could not be filled.

“The level of vacancies over the next week-and-a-half is somewhere in the order of 50 vacant shifts,” he said.

“People are working so much overtime that it is affecting their health.”

Labor’s Rebecca White claimed the situation was unsustainable.

“Staff are under enormous strain when they’re at work due to understaffing and then they are being asked to come in to fill vacant shifts on their days off,” she said.

Ambulance Tasmania’s chief executive Dominic Morgan has issued a statement saying the big overtime demands on staff at present were due to a “large amount of unplanned leave”.

He also stated overtime rates in 2014-15 were the lowest in five years.

Government insists new paramedics on way

Emergency Management Minister Rene Hidding said the workforce would soon be bolstered, with 14 new paramedic interns to be offered permanent positions following a selection process.

He also blamed Labor for the problem.

“The situation we inherited is still the situation, but there are more interns coming on as we speak, and that will resolve the situation,” he said.

“From time to time, of course, all these agencies of course go through unplanned leave issues.”

Mr Hidding said the Government had also committed to hiring 12 new paramedics in the Devonport and Latrobe areas as part of its shake-up of the health system.