Paramedics involved in helicopter rescues are required to take greater risks and responsibilities when rescuing people from dangerous locations including cliffs, canyons and mines.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The medical skills required of them to keep people alive have also increased since 2010. They are routinely required to provide urgent lifesaving treatment after being winched from helicopters to people trapped in inaccessible locations. But, despite the increase in demands, their pay and conditions remain equal to those of road ambulance crews.
On Tuesday, their union won an argument with the state government in the NSW Industrial Relations Commission which agrees the aeromedical paramedics deserve an increase in pay.
But the commission is hamstrung because a regulation the state government introduced in 2011 has capped all public sector salary increases to 2.5 per cent.
The commission found that the Health Services Union had made a successful case for increasing the wages and conditions of paramedics who work on air ambulances above 2.5 per cent.
It will determine the size of that increase in two weeks.
"We have not yet determined the question of the value to be applied to the special circumstances, including the significant net addition to work requirements applicable in this case," the IRC said.
"There have been changes in the nature of the work and in the level of skill and responsibility required of persons performing this work, such as to satisfy the work value criteria.
The IRC on Tuesday found there should be a new classification in the award for critical care paramedics who work on helicopters. It said the classification should be called "Critical Care Paramedic (Aeromedical)".
The HSU successfully argued that aeromedical paramedics were not only winched out of helicopters to rescue people, but were required to perform lifesaving procedures that a doctor or nurse would normally provide.
HSU NSW secretary Gerard Hayes said the IRC had recognised that the aeromedical paramedics "are worth more money because of the advancement of their skill set".
Gymea Bay paramedic Mick Wilson died during a cliff rescue at Carrington Falls, south of Wollongong, on Christmas Eve in 2011 after he was accidentally pulled from a rock ledge by a helicopter that was meant to lift him and his patient to safety.
A report into the accident, released by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau in May 2013, found that due to the fading light, the experienced paramedic, 42, and his patient were inadvertently dragged off the rugged cliff ledge by the rescue chopper that was supposed to winch them out.
Mr Wilson had abseiled down to the injured canyoner and was planning to winch himself and his patient to the chopper as it hovered near the cliff ledge. But the air crewman on board was unable to see all of the winch cable in the fading light before commanding the chopper to move upwards, the report found.
While the crewman believed he received a hand signal from Mr Wilson, indicating that he and the patient were ready to be winched, that was not the case.
Mr Wilson and his patient were pulled off the cliff and plunged about 15 metres onto the base of the waterfall.
The injured canyoner survived the rescue but Mr Wilson died a short time later.