Tasmania’s ambulance service is at breaking point with the Tasmania Fire Service today put on standby to fill the gaps in ambulance coverage.
Ambulance Tasmania has declared a ‘Surge 5’ which is a contingency plan to respond to major incidents like bus and plane crashes.
The Royal Hobart Hospital has also been at its highest escalation level for the past five days.
Labor Leader Rebecca White said the situation in Hobart and Launceston was utter chaos.
“There were 11 patients ramped at the Royal Hobart Hospital yesterday and paramedics sent to jobs outside their knock-off time,” Ms White said.
“Nine patients were ramped at the Launceston General Hospital yesterday with ambulance crews still ramped at the hospital 90 minutes after their shifts ended, which meant when the night crews turned up, they had no trucks as they were all ramped.
“The situation at the LGH has been shocking today with at least seven ambulances ramped.
“We now have a situation where Ambulance Tasmania had no choice today but to declare a ‘Surge 5’ where firefighters will respond first to incidents if there are no ambulance crews available.
“When will Will Hodgman realise that he has run Tasmania’s ambulance services into the ground and that he is putting lives at risk?
“This system is broken and Will Hodgman is refusing to take this seriously. We need more paramedics and we need them now.
“Ambulance officers are at breaking point. They didn’t take on this job to be ramped at a hospital all day and night, they want to be out in the community helping people.
“Will Hodgman needs to stop saying they are going to recruit more ambulance staff and just get on with the job and get people in those roles – we can’t afford to wait any longer.”
Rebecca White MP
Labor Leader
