Jillian Skinner MPMember for North Shore |
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Saturday 5th April 2008
Shadow Minister for Health Jillian Skinner today welcomed news the Iemma Government has decided to adopt half of the NSW Liberal/Nationals policy to fit all emergency ambulances with GPS units, but says the roll-out should be extended to all emergency vehicles.
“The NSW Liberal/Nationals promised in January last year that a Coalition Government would fit all ambulances and other emergency service vehicles including Rural Fire Service vehicles with GPS units,” Mrs Skinner said.
“While it’s good to hear the Iemma Labor Government has decided to follow the Coalition’s lead – why has it stopped at ambulances and not committed to installing GPS equipment in all emergency vehicles?
“Furthermore, why has it taken more than 12 months to come to this decision?
“It’s alarming that in the year 2008 there are still ambulances in New South Wales that do not have this vital and life-saving equipment.
“Tragically, we saw last year that if an ambulance gets lost, lives can be lost too.
“If this Iemma Labor Government is serious about supporting all our dedicated emergency services personnel then they would supply them with the equipment necessary to save lives.”
Mrs Skinner said today’s announcement did not go far enough to giving hard-working ambulance officers the support they need and deserve.
“Reba Meagher has a long way to go to win back the contentment of ambulances officers who are leaving the service faster than they can be recruited,” Mrs Skinner said.
“Response times are the slowest they have been in three years and sadly ambulance officers are incorrectly blamed for this.
“The fact is response times are slower because officers are stuck sitting in their ambulances waiting to get their patients into grossly over-crowded emergency departments – all at the hands of the incompetent Iemma Labor Government.
“Its not fair on highly committed and skilled ambulance officers that they should carry the guilt of not getting to a patient to provide treatment on time.
“Ambulance officers deserve a fair go and while today’s announcement is a step in the right direction to achieving that, there’s a lot more work to be done.”