Tassie Ambo's Want Professional Rates Of Pay

Today the Union lodged a Professional Rates case with the Tasmanian Industrial Commission.

This is the link to the online article in The Examiner newspaper

I have cut and pasted the text and the photo from the web site:

PARAMEDICS in Tasmania want to be recognised as professionals in an industrial test case that could cost the state government millions of dollars.

The Health and Community Services Union has lodged a claim on behalf of the state's 270 full-time equivalent paramedics that seeks professional status for the job and a 17 per cent pay increase to reflect that.

For a paramedic starting at the base level of $53,064, that would equate to a $9000 jump in pay.

It will be the first time in more than 20 years that the Tasmanian Industrial Commission has been asked to consider the work values of a paramedic.

HACSU acting state secretary Tim Jacobson said that over that time the demands, training and responsibilities of a paramedic had changed remarkably.

"The work of paramedics is now central to the work that's provided in the health system in general," Mr Jacobson said.

"No longer is it simply about transporting people. They are professionals and should be recognised as such.

"The sooner you treat people in terms of emergency medical conditions, the shorter the length of stay in hospital and the better the life outcome for that patient."

The commission could take months to consider the complex case that's been brought against the cash-strapped Tasmanian government, and whether it will order a reclassification.

Premier Lara Giddings has restricted all public sector workers to a 2.5 per cent pay rise when it comes to workplace bargaining in order to make considerable budget savings.

Similar cases lodged in South Australia and the Australian Capital Territory over the past few years resulted in pay increases of 20 to 25 per cent for paramedics in those places.

Mr Jacobson said other states were also likely to follow suit.

"Increasingly what we're finding is, given the special nature of their work, paramedicine is becoming a more mobile profession just like nursing and allied health professionals," he said.

"So in order for us to maintain our presence and certainly our ability to attract and retain people we're going to have to continue to pay what the market demands."

The union will ask the commission to assess Tasmanian paramedics against their interstate counterparts, as well as nurses and allied health professionals. The base salary for a Tasmanian nurse is $56,135.


So there it is, til then, be safe.

Ambulance Tasmania Is Hiring Again

The Premier of Tasmania announced a couple of days ago that Ambulance Tasmania was looking to hire on 11 more paramedics.  These qualified staff are required to replace volunteers at a couple of stations where the workload is too high to expect the volunteers to continue provide assistance to the branch station officer.
The Press Release

This is the link to the jobs.
Applications close on Friday the 7th of September 2012.

The press release also states that Graduates and Intensive Care Paramedics are encouraged to apply.


Til then, be safe.

Ambulance Tasmania Is Advertising

Paramedic Student (Multiple Statewide Vacancies) (511770)

Applications Close Friday, 21 January 2011

Positions Commencing in April 2011


Also on the jobs.tas.gov.au website are:
Paramedic Educator positions and a
Deputy CEO/Director Emergency and Medical Services position


Til then, be safe

Outcry Over Ambulance Staff Shortages

This is the video from a new story on the ABC News tonight and the text from the same story on the abc.com.au website.

The Video

The link to The Text

Outcry Over Ambulance Staff Shortages:

Tasmania's Ambulance Service is under fire, accused of failing to provide enough staff to meet demand across the state.

Staff shortages caused the Bridgewater station in the state's south to close its doors last weekend.

The station was left unattended and on-call paramedics had to take vehicles home in case of an emergency call out.

The Health and Community Services Union claims similar incidents are frequent and have been for years because of staff shortages.

The Brighton mayor, Tony Foster, says the Bridgewater station needs two full-time paramedics.

"That's what we need to be able to, I guess, look after the community needs from here to Oatlands and we all know about the Midland Highway," he said.

"So we need to be able to go to an accident that may happen on the Midland Highway from Bridgewater, not from Glenorchy, and not from anywhere else."

The Ambulance Service is assessing staffing levels and infrastructure.

CEO Dominic Morgan says it plans to seek Government funding for additional resources over the next few years.

"Ambulance Tasmania has a significant number of strategies in place to take us in to the future," he said.

"We've just started five qualified staff, they'll be hitting the roads within the next two weeks.

"We've got another three coming on board between now and January and we have 17 officers who will graduate by December," he said.


As much as I'd like to make a personal comment about our staffing, I won't....

Til then, Be safe

Amblance Tasmania Is Hiring Graduates

Well it's that time of year, again.

Ambulance Tasmania is advertising for Paramedic Intern's (Multiple State-wide Vacancies). The positions commence in February 2011 in the 18 month Graduate Program.
Applications close Friday, 24 September 2010

They were advertised:

in Wednesdays edition of the Tasmanian Governemnet Gazette 08-Sep-2010. Which links directly to this page, Paramedic Interns

Posted on the ACAP site on Thursday

And I saw it in todays local paper, so it would be in all 3 Tasmanaian newspapers and I'd suggest many interstate newspapers.

Til then, be safe.

Claim Ambos Work On Leave

This is the text from an article in The Mercury Newspaper

by: DAMIEN BROWN | September 07, 2010 - 08.30am
http://www.themercury.com.au/article/2010/09/07/171245_tasmania-news.html


Claims have surfaced of ambulance officers being paid overtime to work during their annual leave to cover staff shortages, to the anger of the Liberal Party.

More paramedics and volunteer ambulance officers yesterday contacted the Mercury following a series of reports of disgruntled workers fed up with understaffing, not being properly equipped and having to cope with a massive 50 per cent increase in demand over the past five years.

And there have been reports of patients dying because ambulances have not been able to get to them in time -- and some staff being owed as much as a year's worth of annual leave.

Documents obtained by the Mercury this week show that ambulance officers, along with doctors and nurses, are in such short supply they cannot take their accumulated holidays.

A volunteer officer said yesterday that some staff were being paid overtime rates to work during their holidays to cover for staff shortages.

He also cited volunteer workers having to work up to 20 hours and not having their uniforms replaced.

"We are doing the same work as the career officers but feel like we are just treated like second-class citizens," said the volunteer, who did not want to be identified.

"The day you go to work and bring someone back to life or deliver a bub, it makes it all worth it, but we can't continue to be ignored by management for much longer or we're going to crack."

Ambulance Tasmania chief executive officer Dominic Morgan and Health Minister Michelle O'Byrne have urged ambulance officers and the Tasmanian community to be patient.

Mr Morgan has admitted things are not perfect but is confident that when a raft of initiatives is introduced they will make a difference.

But Liberal health spokesman Jeremy Rockliff said yesterday the program to help fix the sick ambulance service needed to be sped up.

"The State Government has supposedly re-injected millions into the Budget to secure front-line health services but you can't get any more front-line than ambulance services, so when staffing is stretched so tight why isn't the Government actively recruiting more ambulance officers to fill the gaps?" he said.

Til then, be safe.

Another Blogger Forced To Wind Up Their Blog

Well,

Mark over at 999medic.com has pulled up stumps. It was not a decision he took lightly and was forced into this decision by people causing problems for him.

In his 2nd last post he stated:

"I know I have people in my own service who actively look for things to get me into trouble.
I now know I have people in my own service who have tried to cause trouble for me and this blog".

In the last 18 months, his blog grew into one of the best EMS related blogs on the internet and one of my favourites.

He had written and published 483 posts. Received over 3000 comments and the site had 250,000+ hits. He further created ‘The Handover’ EMS Blog carnival which is still going strong as the only EMS related carnival.

So Mark, farewell mate.
You will be sorely missed.


Til then, be safe.

Had To Share This Classic

I heard this the other day from an interstate friend who is a nurse and I laughed so hard I had to share it. This is true. I have not made this up.

Several months ago, my friend was working on the triage desk at the Accident & Emergency department of the local hospital when a young mother came to the counter with her daughter in a pram. The mother was concerned about the health of her young daughter.

Presenting history, past history, medications and allergies were obtained and then came the time to get the child's name.

Nurse " what is you daughter first name"

Mother "Abseedee"

Nurse "Sorry I didn't quite get that"

Mother "Abseedee"

Nurse - with a look of confusion "Oh, how do you spell that"

Mother - with a look of disbelief/disdain "A B C D E"

Nurse - withholding a look of 'you have to be kidding' "Right"


Til then, be safe.

Back On The Road Next Week

Well, 7 months on the fixed wing has come to an end.

I've consolidated my new found skills and knowledge, so I'm back on road next block so the other flight paramedics get a stint on the plane. The roster is only ever 4 weeks in advance but I'd take a guess and say I'll be on the road for several months before getting back on the plane as the plan is to continually rotate the ICFP's around.

With Tassie being such a small state, I felt I just couldn't post about jobs without someone recognising themselves or someone they knew.

Til then, be safe.

Ambulance Tasmania's Newest Recruits

Well, it's February 2010 and Ambulance Tasmania has just recently hired its LAST batch of student paramedics (they were advertised in June 2009). See this post for the difference between a "student paramedic" and a "graduate paramedic".

From next year they will only be hiring qualified officers or graduate students (those who have already completed a degree). No more being hired without any qualifications and being trained on the job (whilst being paid) over 3 years. This will make becoming a paramedic in Tasmania as a mature aged person very difficult.

Anyway, seventeen (17) new students commenced in the middle of February and are completing an induction period in Hobart which includes basic BLS skills and their initial driver training amongst other things, then the 5 coming to my station start here on the 15th of March with a weeks induction to the region and then they will spend a week riding on the ambulances as thirds. Then it's out on the road with a mentor.

Til then, be safe.