Tania Maxwell MP has acknowledged the government’s recently announced paramedic practitioner investment.
But the Derryn Hinch’s Justice Party Member for Northern Victoria says it won’t have any effect for years and more should be done to address the immediate demands on Victoria’s health system.
Ms Maxwell said regional communities would not be fooled into thinking the Victorian government’s promise last week to fund 25 paramedic practitioners from 2026 could reduce pressure on ambulance services in the short term.
“Our communities know that the worst ambulance emergency response times in the state were clocked in Indigo shire communities in the June quarter,” Ms Maxwell said.
“Northern Victoria is peppered with communities that cannot rely on a timely emergency response, and this costs lives.
“There are solutions the government could fund that would immediately help to reduce the pressure on our health system, yet the government repeatedly fails to act.
“We have been in the state government’s ear for much of this year pushing the government to fund community paramedics.
“Paramedic, nursing and home care organisations like HMS Community are operational, with feet on the ground and ready to expand, but the government keeps excluding them from funding.
“The Premier’s promised funding for 25 paramedic practitioners will cost $20 million and our communities will have to wait four years.
“I fail to see how this promise will help our communities now, and I’m disappointed the government is continuing to reject options that are ready to roll and could have an instant benefit.”
Ms Maxwell put a proposal to the Health and Ambulance Services Minister Mary-Anne Thomas MP at a meeting in August and said the minister had been receptive about the issues facing Northern Victorian communities.
Ms Maxwell said she was also aware that HMS Community, a not-for-profit organisation, had met the Minister last month.
But the minister rejected the organisation’s proposal to expand existing services to help provide earlier interventions for people in their home and community settings.
