According to a recent statement of the paramedic’s union, Moe’s ambulances are often unmanned putting the lives of all the residents at risk.
Ambulance Employees Australia's Steve McGhie revealed that the ambulance station at Moe remains unattended or hours everyday because of shortage of paramedic staff. He urged Ambulance Victoria to hire at least two new paramedics during the day. He said, “The workload is so high for the communications centre and for ambulance paramedics and to try and locate people when they're off duty - it's a difficult task… There's got to be a better system and a better structure.”
However Ambulance Victoria's Gippsland regional manager, Mark Cooke, feels there is no risk to the residents while the ambulances remain unmanned. He said, “When we receive a call in any given community we make arrangements to provide cover immediately into that community and that's sometimes by recalling off-duty paramedics or it's sometimes by moving an ambulance from another area into that area.”
It was announced that from Monday night the emergency calls from Grampians and Barwon regions will be attended at a Geelong call centre while the non-emergency calls will be answered in Ballarat. Ambulance Employees Australia is skeptical about the idea saying that this will make Geelong a very busy portal.
James Howe of Ambulance Victoria plans to address this by employing two new people at Geelong. “This is something that we have worked on for about 12 months since it was announced last year… It's a very thorough, very strategic plan and the work that we do as an ambulance service, everyone who comes here to work everyday does so with the hope of saving lives and we're not going to implement something that's half-baked or something that's going to risk people's lives,” he said.