Ambulance Paramedics in Regional Areas Overwhelmed by Non-Emergency Calls

Paramedics in rural New South Wales (NSW) have been tasked with transporting numerous non-critical patients, potentially diverting frontline workers from emergencies and leading to burnout.

According to the auditor-general’s report on regional services released on June 28, NSW Ambulance conducted 13,627 patient transport trips in 2022/23, with the majority taking place in country areas.

The practice of using ambulances for non-urgent patient transportation has been a longstanding source of frustration for paramedics, who believe it hinders their ability to attend to emergencies and contributes to high-risk fatigue.

The audit revealed that NSW Health has developed a new plan in 2023 to enhance patient transport, replacing a previous strategy that lapsed in 2011.

The report highlighted that for over a decade, NSW Health did not have a comprehensive statewide policy addressing transport needs in regional and rural NSW that impact health outcomes and service delivery.

NSW Health responded to the auditor-general’s recommendation to review non-emergency transport operations.

Related Stories

The Australian Paramedics Association NSW submission to an ongoing inquiry emphasized that the use of ambulances for non-urgent transport has not improved since a rural health report criticized the practice in 2022.

The submission stated that this practice puts paramedics at risk and can dangerously extend shift times, particularly in rural and regional NSW where access to hospitals and the level of care may not meet necessary standards.

Despite an 18% increase in demand since 2018, the audit found that the health department is effectively managing services in rural areas, with the median response time for high priority jobs meeting the ten-minute target.

However, the report noted that response times in regional areas showed some jobs had an 18-minute response time, indicating potential discrepancies in city and country performance that statewide statistics might be masking.

NSW Health acknowledged the need to improve monitoring of response times and accepted a recommendation to enhance information sharing between NSW Ambulance and local health districts, though they have their own ongoing project for this purpose.

Department secretary Susan Pearce highlighted the positive impact of this project on service provision in regional NSW.

NSW AMBULANCE REGIONAL OPERATIONS:

* Ambulances took 8.65 minutes to respond to high-priority jobs in regional NSW in 2022/23, meeting the ten-minute target

* Demand for ambulances in NSW has increased by 18% since 2018

* Nearly 45% of NSW Ambulance operations occurred in regional areas in 2022/23

* In 2022/23, NSW Ambulance conducted 353,369 trips and responded to 627,213 incidents in regional areas

* 13,627 patient transport trips for non-urgent care were provided by NSW Ambulance, with 80% of them in country areas

Source: NSW Auditor-General’s Report into ambulance services in regional areas