EXHAUSTED western suburbs paramedics are sleeping during their meal breaks to get through non-stop 10-hour shifts.
Seven paramedics, including four from the west, have spoken out against bullying, a broken dispatch system, and being asked to work while sick to plug holes in ambulance coverage.
Jedda McGlinchey, who has been at Sunshine for most of her four years as a paramedic, said she was often exhausted while working.
She said that during a 10-hour shift the only downtime she gets is a 30-minute meal break, when she often sleeps. “Obviously downtime should be utilised to keep up to scratch with clinical practice guidelines.”
Hillside officer Alex Vella, a paramedic for four years, said sometimes a patient died because ambulances were diverted. In those cases, he said a paramedic felt responsible for the death, and counselling “doesn’t take away the thought that maybe we could have done something better.”
“[We] put it back onto ourselves at times when it really is a service responsibility to ensure an adequate response,” he said.
Sunbury paramedic Al Briggs said he once fell asleep at the wheel and missed the entrance to the Northern Hospital.
The paramedics said that while working long shifts they were often “bullied” into missing breaks because of the frequency of new cases.
Opposition health spokesman Gavin Jennings brought the seven paramedics to State Parliament last week to have them tell their side of problems at Ambulance Victoria.
They are able to speak publicly due to industrial action over an unresolved enterprise bargaining agreement. “Previously we would most likely have been terminated,” Mr Vella said.
Ambulance Victoria’s general manager of specialist services, Mark Rogers, said the dispatch system was used at 3000 other ambulance services worldwide.
“We continually review our responses to cases and employ demand management strategies to reduce instances of incorrect dispatch happening,” he said.
“We know it can be frustrating for paramedics and the community can assist by ensuring that the information supplied by the caller is as accurate as possible.”
