Illawarra paramedics say they have been so short staffed that all but one of the ambulance crews on shift from the Shoalhaven had to be called in to work in the Illawarra area one night last week.
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And one crew, which had been called up from St Georges Basin to a job in Albion Park, was the first available ambulance for an emergency at Port Kembla - an hour and 20 minutes from their home station.
These staffing shortages are part of the reason workers from the Australian Paramedics Association (APA) will implement 24-hour work bans on Tuesday, their second round of industrial action in a fortnight.
The paramedics say the action will be going ahead, despite a recommendation from the Industrial Relations Commission that it should not proceed.
Illawarra Shoalhaven APA delegate Cheryl Clements, an advanced life support paramedic at the Bay and Basin station, said paramedics would be refusing to start work outside their home station for 24 hours from the start of Tuesday day shift, and would also not be doing non-urgent transports.
"Basically, we're trying to make sure that we're available for emergencies - because the important thing is that we're available for Triple-0 calls," she said.
"At no time do paramedics want to put people's safety or health at risk - we are just trying to do this to highlight the problems within Ambulance and Health at this point in time."
She said staffing shortages across the Illawarra reached a critical point last week, with huge workloads and the number of ambulances stuck at Wollongong hospital leaving the region short of paramedics.
"I heard of one case last week where a category two patient at Wollongong Hospital waited over seven hours to be offloaded from an ambulance stretcher," Ms Clements said.
Shoalhaven ambulance officers had to be sent north to help out, which then left the entire Shoalhaven with only one car on shift, she said.
"On Wednesday March 23 night shift, three of the four night shift cars rostered in the Shoalhaven were sent into the Illawarra area, which only left a night shift at Ulladulla," Ms Clements said.
"There was one other vehicle available, the rescue truck at Nowra, but they can't transport, and then there is on-call, where you would be calling back people who have worked that day."
"On this night, one of the vehicles from the St Georges Basin station was responded to an emergency, which was deemed 'lights and sirens' in the Port Kembla area."
She said the Bay and Basin crew had been on its way to Albion Park and had been tasked to the Port Kembla emergency.
A spokesperson from Ambulance NSW said "the Illawarra Zone had a small number of paramedics furloughed from its normal roster as a result of COVID-19" on March 23.
"NSW Ambulance has a dynamic workforce and will deploy the closest available paramedic to any emergency," the spokesperson said.
Ms Clements said paramedics were regularly sent around the region to fill staffing shortages and would put a ban staff leaving their allocated station during the industrial action.
On a daily basis, we have paramedics signing on shift and then a car or a single officer is being sent from Wollongong to Bomaderry for the shift, or from Helensburgh to Dapto, or someone from Bombaderry is being sent to Kangaroo Valley
- APA delegate Cheryl Clements
"On a daily basis, we have paramedics signing on shift and then a car or a single officer is being sent from Wollongong to Bomaderry for the shift, or from Helensburgh to Dapto, or someone from Bombaderry is being sent to Kangaroo Valley," she said.
"We're often being asked to travel away from our home station to fill roster gaps in other areas, so robbing Peter to pay Paul, and we are trying to highlight the fact that we need more staff and we need stations to be staffed appropriately."
Members have agreed to continuing industrial action, calling for better resourcing and a wage increase beyond the 2.5 per cent annual cap. They have asked the government to commit to hiring another 1500 paramedics and more specialist paramedics.
NSW Ambulance said it had operational plans in place to minimise disruption to the community should the union proceed with industrial action on Tuesday.
"NSW Health meets regularly with unions to discuss paramedic awards and entitlements," the spokesperson said.
The agency said the NSW Government had made "record investments in NSW Ambulance, recruiting 750 paramedics and control centre staff in the last four years as part of the State Wide Enhancement Program".
"NSW Government has invested a record $1.4 billion in NSW Ambulance in 2021-22 representing an increase of $56 million, or 5.4 per cent, over the prior year expense budget," they said.
"This record investment includes $334.1 million in infrastructure funding which will assist NSW Ambulance to prepare for the future and deliver emergency care across the state."
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Kate McIlwain
For more than a decade, I've helped the Illawarra Mercury set the news agenda across the region. Currently I'm the paper's health reporter - covering the stories of Illawarra workers and residents in the wake of a global pandemic and at a time where our health systems are stretched to the limit.
For more than a decade, I've helped the Illawarra Mercury set the news agenda across the region. Currently I'm the paper's health reporter - covering the stories of Illawarra workers and residents in the wake of a global pandemic and at a time where our health systems are stretched to the limit.
