THINK how tired you are having spent 10 hours or 12 hours at work. or signup to continue reading Whether that be due to mental or physical demands you're wanting a break, but then factor in not knocking off until you have toiled for 18 hours and 27 minutes. That was the situation a Myrtleford paramedic found himself in last week and sadly, but not entirely unsurprising, his shift ended horribly.
Around 400 metres from home, the in the early hours of Thursday morning, having begun his stint at 7am the previous day. The paramedic, his shift had been extended after he went from ramping outside Wangaratta hospital to an urgent case at Corowa. "What do you do?" Mr Avard said.
"Someone has called triple-zero in an emergency and they've only got a single officer going, so we decided to go." That dedication is laudable and reflects the commitment of our frontline medical workers. But the bigger issue is the lack of paramedics and other medicos in our system that results in an overworked crew having to attend.
We have seen ramping of ambulances at Wangaratta and Albury Wodonga Health become commonplace in recent weeks. It is also apparent from this situation that Victorian ambulance services are being stretched because of the need to fill a gap in NSW. Ambulance Victoria executive director of regional operations Danielle North said her teams were attending Riverina jobs at a rate of five to one when compared to NSW paramedics responding to jobs south of the Murray River.
The bigger ba.