Legislative Council Wednesday 09 December, 2020

Mrs Hiscutt (by leave) tabled and incorporated the following answers to questions on notice.

Ms FORREST asked a question of the Leader of the Government in the Legislative Council -

With regard to Ambulance Tasmania response times, staffing levels and procedures in the north-west region municipal areas of Burnie, Waratah/Wynyard, West Coast, Circular Head, Central Coast, Devonport, Latrobe, and Kentish -

(1) What is the average time taken for an ambulance to attend a 000 call-out in each municipal area?

(2) For each municipal area, what is the breakdown of -

(a) salaried staff;

(b) students in training; and

(c) volunteer ambulance officers?

(3) (a) What are the current shift times in each municipal area?

(b) What is the breakdown of wait times across each shift period in each municipal area?

(4) (a) What are the on-call arrangements in place in addition to the rostered shifts in each municipal area, and how do these arrangements work?

(b) What is the breakdown of the data to identify weekdays, as opposed to weekends, across each municipal area?

(5) (a) Are volunteer ambulance officers engaged, or required to support, ambulance officers/paramedics in each municipal area?

(b) If so, when are they engaged or required, and how far away from the location of the patient are they called from?

(6) (a) Are single ambulance officers required to attend call-outs as first responders?

(b) If so, when and why does this occur, and how many times in the last 18 months has this occurred in each municipal area?

(7) Reported by municipal area -

(a) What are the levels of overtime reported monthly over the last 18 months?

(b) How often have double shifts been worked each month over the last 18 months?

(8) (a) Is the Wynyard Ambulance Station now operating as a 24-hour station?

(b) If not, why not?

(9) (a) What alternative transport options are available to patients on weekends when patient transfer services are not operational?

(b) What is the cost of each of these transport options, and how are these funded?

Answer incorporated as follows -

(1) The ambulance emergency response time is the difference in time between an emergency triple zero call being received by the Ambulance Tasmania State Operations Centre, and the first ambulance vehicle arriving at the location of the patient.

LGA name	Median emergency response time (minutes)
Burnie	10.7
Central Coast	13.9
Circular Head	17.2
Devonport	11.2
Kentish	17.0
Latrobe	13.0
Waratah-Wynyard	13.8
West Coast	17.2

 

(2) (a) Salaried staff -

LGA Name	Salaried staff
Burnie	46
Central Coast	Drawn from Devonport
Circular Head	2
Devonport	68
Kentish	2
Latrobe	Drawn from Devonport
Waratah-Wynyard	5
West Coast	4

 

(b) Students in training -

Intensive Care Paramedic (ICP) course -

• Ambulance Tasmania operates an in-house ICP course. Two courses have been run statewide this calendar year.

• There is currently one ICP student in the north-west region.

Paramedic internship -

• Ambulance Tasmania employs qualified paramedics who have completed a Bachelor of Paramedicine.

• Ambulance Tasmania requires newly qualified paramedics to undertake a 12-month internship prior to becoming an independent practitioner.

• There are currently 13 paramedics undertaking their internship training in the north-west region.

(c) Volunteer ambulance officers -

There are 97 active VAOs in the north-west region -

LGA name	Volunteer officers
Burnie	Salaried only
Central Coast	Salaried only
Circular Head	15
King Island	14
Kentish	23
Latrobe	Salaried only
Waratah-Wynyard	22
West Coast	23

Some VAOs are presently taking leave from frontline duties, as they are identified as a vulnerable person with regard to the COVID-19 pandemic.

(3) (a) Current shift times in each muncipal area -

LGA name	Shift times
Burnie	10 hour day, 14 hour night
Central Coast	10 hour day, 14 hour night
Circular Head	11.5 hour day, 12.5 hour on-call
Devonport	10 hour day, 14 hour night
Kentish	11.5 hour day, 12.5 hour on-call
Latrobe	10 hour day, 14 hour night 11.5 hour day, 11.5 hour afternoon
Waratah-Wynyard	10 hour day, 14 hour night
West Coast	11.5 hour day, 12.5 hour on-call

(b) Ambulance Tasmania does not currently have this level of reporting built into its business intelligence systems.

(4) (a) There are no on-call arrangements outside of the current roster for Wynyard, Burnie, Ulverstone, Devonport and Latrobe stations.

These facilities are crewed with a paid staff member on a 24-hour, seven days per week basis.

Stations outside these areas are crewed with a rostered paramedic during the day, who is then on-call for 14 hours overnight. If the paramedic receives a call during the 14-hour on-call period, they complete the case and then are subject to a period of nine hours rest and recovery.

(b) Ambulance Tasmania operates a 24-hour a day response capability. As such, there is no difference between weekdays and weekends.

(5) (a) Volunteers are not utilised in Burnie, Central Coast and Latrobe, with paramedic crews rostered on 24 hours per day.

(b) The State Operations Centre receives 000 calls and dispatches ambulance responses according to the priority level of the case.

VAOs are paged, and respond to the call in an ambulance vehicle. VAOs may be working alongside a paramedic or with other volunteers. In the north-west region, volunteer-only stations are located at Tullah, Rosebery and Strahan.

In the north-west region, a community emergency response team operates from Port Sorell. A CERT is a volunteer-only response, which is not attached to a station.

The location of the patient in relation to the VAO will vary from case to case. The area that the case is located within defines what ambulance station is activated to respond.

(6) (a) Single-responder paramedics are required to attend call-outs as first responders. Paramedics are trained to deliver life-saving medical interventions as a single responder.

At single (a paramedic is rostered on in the day, and on-call overnight) and double branch stations (a paramedic is rostered 24 hours per day), the branch station officer may be required to respond as a single responder if there are no VAOs available to respond to a call. In these cases, the nearest double-crewed ambulance is deployed to provide back-up.

(b) Ambulance Tasmania does not currently have this level of reporting built into its business intelligence systems.

(7) (a) Ambulance Tasmania cannot provide a breakdown of overtime by municipality.

The overtime costs for the north-west region in hours, from April 2019 to September 2020 -

Apr 2019	1584.37
May 2019	759.73
Jun 2019	1156.21
Jul 2019	1924.61
Aug 2019	1245.21
Sep 2019	1455.88
Oct 2019	1544.09
Nov 2019	1330.25
Dec 2019	1961
Jan 2020	1143
Feb 2020	1302
Mar 2020	1605.75
Apr 2020	2691.75
May 2020	4581.25
Jun 2020	1679
Jul 2020	1589
Aug 2020	1825.25
Sep 2020	2177.75

 

(b) Double shifts are not permitted under the Ambulance Tasmania Award.

(8) (a )& (b)

Wynyard station transitioned from a single branch station to a double branch station (a paramedic is rostered 24 hours per day) on 17 June 2019.

(9) (a) Ambulance Tasmania NEPT is available in the north-west and south between 8 a.m. and midnight, and in Launceston between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m.

Private non-emergency patient transport providers work across both the private and public health system, and transfers typically happen between hospitals or between hospitals and day procedure centres, and include residential aged care patients for planned medical appointments -

• 24/7 service is provided, and prebooking is preferred.

• Home pick-ups are available.

• Non-urgent patient transport is arranged by health facilities for those patients who need basic care and observation- but do not have high medical needs.

• The Tasmanian Health System outsources NEPT to a panel of five private NEPT providers: Ambulance Private Pty Ltd, St John Ambulance Tasmania, the Royal Flying Doctor Service Victoria, Moreton Group Medical Services, and Medical Edge Australia. The panel exists as an overflow service for when Ambulance Tasmania is unable to meet demand. Ambulance Tasmania is the largest provider of NEPT services in Tasmania, undertaking approximately 65 per cent of NEPT work.

• Four of the five private non-emergency patient transport services have escalated their preparedness to transport COVID-19 patients by quarantining dedicated vehicles for transport of suspected or confirmed COVID-19 patients, strengthening infection control policies and processes, staff education and training, particularly around person protective equipment use, and environmental cleaning prevention strategies.

Community Transport Services Tasmania provide various services statewide. Pre-bookings would be required. Home and Community Care (HACC) and Commonwealth Home Support Program (CHSP) Incorporated Association are funded jointly by the Commonwealth and Tasmanian Governments.

(b) Detail regarding the associated costs and how they are funded is unable to be provided, as it is variable and depends on the service provided and the service provider. Costs can also vary depending on the time of day and the distance travelled.

In broad terms, the Government is making significant investments into supporting ambulance services, with $134.6 million allocated in the Budget for 2020-21 - a 33 per cent increase in funding year on year.

 

 

 

 

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