South Australian ambulance officers are threatening industrial action after the union was told the State Government has plans to cut almost $8 million from the service.
Ambulance Employees Association secretary Phil Palmer said he was advised at an industrial liaison meeting on Monday that the Treasury Department needed to find $7.9 million in savings from the SA Ambulance Service.
He described the concept as “quite bizarre” and that the union would “resist with vigour”.
“Yesterday at one of our regular liaison meetings with the ambulance service we were advised that there was a total of about $7.9 [million in] budget cuts or savings that Treasury are seeking from the ambulance service,” he said.
“We know full well the ambulance service needs to expand and not contract.
“Our members’ ability to look after the community will be compromised with those sorts of cuts.
“There’s no way we can assist in (the Government’s) Transforming Health (policy) if we can’t even do the job we are doing now before it occurs so we will resist the figure.”
Health Minister Jack Snelling said the Government was always looking at ways to make the system more efficient but the service’s overall budget would increase by 6 per cent.
“The SA Ambulance Service Budget will grow by $14 million this year,” he said.
“We are putting on more paramedics as part of Transforming Health and we are in the process of building three new ambulance stations.”
“As with all parts of Government, we are always looking at ways to make our system work better be more efficient, but the overall Budget for our Ambulance Service is actually increasing by more than 6 per cent.”