NEW ambulance services are on the way for the Pyramid Hill, Dingee and Lockington district.
The State Government announced on Sunday that a paramedic community support co-ordinator and patient transport vehicle would be based in the district from 2018, replicating a model successfully trialled at Wedderburn this year.
Pyramid Hill already has a Community Emergency Response Team, which is supported by paramedic crews from neighbouring towns, usually Cohuna, Kerang, Echuca or Inglewood.
The co-ordinator will be an experienced paramedic who can provide a local emergency response, while also training and supervising local volunteer teams who can respond to incidents.
The new service will be replicated at 12 locations around the State.
The announcement is part of a $500 million investment over five years to employ 450 more paramedics, buy new vehicles and build new branches.
“This is an exciting new model for regional and rural communities where a professional paramedic is providing better access to critical care and training up dedicated local volunteers to respond to emergencies,” Member for Bendigo East, Jacinta Allan said.
The Wedderburn trial was the government’s response to the community’s long-running campaign for better ambulance services to improve response times.
A paramedic was stationed in the town in May and an ambulance was allocated three months later. CERT members completed driver training to become Ambulance Community Officers.
Transitioning is also taking place with the Boort CERT, with members to staff another ambulance vehicle when it becomes available next month.
“While the introduction of the Wedderburn-Boort paramedic community support co-ordinator is still in its early stages, the service model has already proved successful and is showing an increased ability to provide service to the community,” Ambulance Victoria regional director, Kevin Masci said.
It is unclear whether the announcement means a single ambulance for the Pyramid Hill, Lockington and Dingee district, or whether there will be an ambulance in each town, and whether the Pyramid Hill CERT will be wound up.
Pyramid Hill team leader, Sheridan Gunther said the announcement was great news for the district.
“The benefit will be huge because of improved response times,” she said.
“You don’t often have big funding changes in rural Victoria, so the government needed to do something to improve services.”
Without having spoken to her 16 fellow team members, Ms Gunther said it was difficult to say how many would be interested in becoming Ambulance Community Officers.
“It’s up to the individual to think about what they would like to do,” she said.
“The medical training is very similar for CERT members and ACOs and as CERT members we are already available to drive an ambulance where required and some of us have done that.”
