Tasmanian Paramedic To Take Industry Action This Thursday

Tasmanian paramedics will walk off the job on time on Thursday – even if that means patients are left in ambulances outside the Royal Hobart Hospital (RHH).

Paramedics will take action to support a log of claims the union lodged with Ambulance Tasmania, Health and Community Services Union industrial manager Robbie Moore told the Mercury.

Stay up-to-date on the latest news with The Tasmania Briefing - keeping you in the loop with news as it hits:

“They’ve just had enough."

- Robbie Moore

Moore urged patients in Ambulance Victoria’s care would not suffer when shifts finish at 6pm.

“Ambulance ramping is a huge problem and it is getting worse so paramedics have decided that when their shifts finish they will walk off the job when usually they would stay on,” he said.

“We will let management know in plenty of time for contingencies to be put in place.

“We don’t know how many people will be affected but at times there are up to eight ambulances ramped outside the RHH and they usually have two paramedics in them each with a patient.”

Moore said the number of paramedics on sick leave or workers’ compensation was “very high and it is only going to get worse” – sparking the industry action.

Paramedics are fatigued and are seeking a cost of living pay rise he added.

“By employing more staff they would be saving money on overtime,” he said.

“We need to employ more paramedics and pay them more because our pay rates are falling behind other key states and the work here is so hard, we can’t attract people from interstate like we used to.”

For Australians looking for intelligent and unbiased news coverage, join renowned journalist Natarsha Belling on Your Morning Agenda for breaking national and international stories as well as the top business and finance stories - every weekday from 6:30am on Listnr: