18 extra ambulance officers for Northern region

An additional 18 ambulance officers will be recruited for Queensland Ambulance Service’s Northern region as part of 250-staff boost this financial year (2007-08), Emergency Services Minister Neil Roberts said.

Mr Roberts said the QAS was budgeted to recruit an extra 250 ambulance officers and buy 140 new ambulance vehicles in 2007-08, in response to the growing demand for ambulance services across the State.

Mr Roberts said the commitment of 18 extra ambulance officers for the Northern region, which includes stations in the Townsville, Gulf of Carpentaria, north west and far west of Queensland, was in additional to the commitment of nine new ambulance vehicles for the region.

“I am pleased that 120 additional officers – almost half of our target – have been recruited and interviews with more than 100 qualified ambulance officers in the United Kingdom are concluding this week,” Mr Roberts said.

Mr Roberts said the appointment of additional ambulance officers was in response to the growing demand for ambulance services.

“Last financial year (2006-07), Queensland ambulance officers responded to more than 815,000 total calls for assistance. This was 70,000 more calls than was responded to in 2005-06 and almost double the number of calls a decade ago,” Mr Roberts said.

Mr Roberts said he commended QAS staff in the region for their hard-work and dedication.

“Patient satisfaction with QAS response services was 97% last financial year. That is a tribute to the staff of the QAS. A decade ago that satisfaction rate was 94%,” he said.

“The Queensland Government is committed to support ambulance services across the State. For 2007-08, the QAS has a record budget of $404.4 million. It will employ an extra 250 ambulance officers and buy 140 new ambulance vehicles.”

Mr Roberts said in the Northern region, there were 13,873 Code 1 urgent incidents in 2006-07 and 7319 so far this financial year (2007-08).

Mr Roberts said in 1997-98, the Queensland Ambulance Service responded to 9605 Code 1 incidents in the Northern region.

“The QAS aims to attend to 68% of Code 1 incidents in less than 10 minutes. Last financial year, 10,147 calls were attended to in less than 10 minutes in the Northern region compared to 7203 incidents in 1997-98,” Mr Roberts said.

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