Highway fatalities, residential street crashes, the unexpected wrath of nature in stormy weather, and all the ills and spills that are part of being human, and increasingly so in the 21st century.
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These demands upon our ambulance service and other emergency services are not unique, but the norm. A lot of their call-outs go unseen, happening in the dark of the late and early hours.
The often unpredictable nature of calamities also means that these selfless men and women can be on call not just for hours, but days.
Further, statistics from credible sources show paramedics are twice as likely to be injured as other essential services personnel.
So it’s a sign of dedication to duty that the ambulance service and its paramedics are able to maintain the standard of care and service to our community that they continue to do, every day of the year.
A NSW Ambulance spokesperson told Fairfax Media that staff deployment rosters were regularly reviewed to ensure all residents in the region would have access to emergency care if needed.
A new rostering system had been developed in consultation with ambulance staff and unions, the spokesperson noted.
That’s all very well for us residents, but anecdotally we know that – like many businesses – more and more is being asked of staff.
But finally, last week, something that seems like it will be a win: an investment of $48 million in an enhanced insurance scheme.
The scheme will offer a minimum of five years’ income protection for on-duty claims, and a specialised health program for paramedics.
This is great work by the government and its relevant agencies, but the biggest acknowledgement must go to the NSW Ambulance Service paramedics themselves, for again going above and beyond.
Last year they ran a campaign – in protest of proposed cuts to their death and disability ascheme – that risked misconduct charges whereby they wrote slogans on their ambulances in liquid chalk.
The “most trusted [but] least protected of essential services” kept up the action and those slogans didn’t disappear in the next downpour.
It’s an example to us all, to fight for what we know is right, even when others don’t see it as we do.