Ms ROSOL (Bass) – Deputy Speaker, I rise to speak about this matter of public importance: prioritising essential services. This morning in Question Time, I asked a reasonable question about the use of taxis instead of ambulances, and I asked this question on behalf of the 165 Tasmanians who, when they were sick and injured and called an ambulance, instead got a taxi. Multiply that out to the whole year and that’s almost 1000 taxis instead of ambulances, if this rate continues. I want to acknowledge each one of those patients and their experience. They are sick, they are worried, they’re stressed and they’ve gone to the right place for help. Calling triple-O for an ambulance is the right and appropriate thing to do, and expecting to have an ambulance come, so they can be assessed, is also reasonable and appropriate.
Instead of acknowledging the awfulness of this for Tasmanians and apologising for leaving them in the lurch in a taxi, this morning, the minister attacked me and suggested I’m being disrespectful of ambulance staff. I asked a genuine question and, instead of getting an answer, I was met with baseless accusations. More than that, the minister’s response tells us that she thinks it’s okay for people who need medical help to be picked up by taxi. She effectively said that taxis are now part of our health system. I’d like to remind the minister that I’ve worked in health care. I’ve cared for patients who are unconscious; they’re considered critically unwell and they cannot maintain their own airway, which means they’re at high risk of dying if they do not receive intervention. It’s not normal to be unconscious, and patients who are unconscious are at risk and that risk continues once they regain consciousness; they don’t suddenly become okay and not need medical intervention anymore.
I know that paramedics are highly skilled and I know the people who are conducting the triage are highly skilled, but they know that even when there is an expert and proper triage, there’s still a risk for those patients who they’re assessing. If triage has determined that hospital is needed, how can a taxi be appropriate in that situation? The minister needs to acknowledge that taxis are being sent because ambulances aren’t available. We have an ambulance service in crisis. It doesn’t have enough ambulances and it doesn’t have enough paramedics to meet the needs of Tasmanians in health emergencies. The issue isn’t triage. I’m not questioning the triage skills of our ambulance staff. The issue is the lack of resourcing in Ambulance Tasmania resulting in systemic issues that mean ambulances aren’t available. It’s a systemic issue, not a personal staffing issue; a system issue, a system in crisis, a system under pressure, a system not being prioritised by this government.
That gets to the heart of my original question this morning, which was about funding for Ambulance Tasmania. We have a government that for the last 12 years has failed to prioritise essential services for Tasmanians. They can come in and stand here and say all the ways they’ve funded and all the things they’ve done. I know that there are times within Ambulance Tasmania when there are no dedicated call takers available. That’s a system in crisis. This government has moved heaven and earth for an unnecessary stadium; meanwhile, services like Ambulance Tasmania have been neglected to the point that they need to send taxis and they have to run single-paramedic shifts. I note here that there is industrial action being undertaken by paramedics around the state, and one of the issues that they’re raising is the single-paramedic shifts where they have to go out to jobs on their own.
Ambulance officers are stressed they’re tired, they’re burnt out, they’re in crisis, and when we raise significant concerns about that in here, we get attacked for raising those concerns. The Greens have long called for more funding in the ambulance service. We’ve long called for the end of single-paramedic shifts. This government needs to prioritise our health service, our essential services, and fund them in a way that when people need to go to hospital, we have ambulances to send instead of relying on taxis.
The reality is, this government has let down the people of Tasmania. They need to get their priorities right and they need to make sure that people can get the health care they need when they need it.
