Paramedics to leave low-risk patients at emergency department

This is part of rolling industrial action by the Ambulance Division of the HSU against current NSW Health guidelines.

Health states paramedics must remain with patients they have brought to hospital until they are processed formally.

But the union claims paramedics are getting stuck in "bed blocked hospitals for hours on end" accompanying patients "suffering relatively minor conditions such as sunburn" because the hospital system is overwhelmed.

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The latest industrial action is called 'return to the road' and will have paramedics buck health department orders, and take matters into their own hands. If they judge the condition of a patient aged 18-85 to be stable, they will return to the road.

Dubbo paramedic and union member Melissa Todhunter confirmed Western NSW union members were involved in the industrial action, which is statewide.

"Patient safety is paramount to ADHSU members and only patients who fit the parameters to be safely left in the waiting room at hospital will be left," Ms Todhunter told the Daily Liberal.

"By doing this emergency ambulance crews will be able to respond to higher priority cases instead of having these patients wait extended times, which happens when crews are 'bed blocked' and unable to handover patients to hospital staff.

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"That means patients suffering cardiac, respiratory or stroke-like symptoms will have a quicker response."

Ms Todhunter said paramedics had escalated to this action as they continued to highlight the "significant flaws and downfalls of a broken health system throughout NSW".

"This is not just an issue for metropolitan hospitals, it affects everyone throughout NSW, even in our regional and remote locations," Ms Todhunter said.

She said NSW Premier Dominic Perrotet "continues to refuse to address the issue of fixing NSW Health".

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HSU NSW Secretary, Gerard Hayes, said the paramedic workforce was taking the action to promote public health.

He said it was "the consequence of a decade of wage suppression" - and though the union had "tried every which way" to propose reform options to reduce bed block, they had "hit a brick wall".

"It's astounding we have to do this, but we have no other option," Mr Hayes said.

"Paramedics are at their wits' end. They are forced to hang around emergency departments with patients who have constipation, stubbed toes or sunburn all because there simply isn't enough staff to process a handover. We are sacrificing crucial minutes where we could be responding to a potential cardiac arrest.

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"At the heart of this problem is the collapse in hospital staffing. There are 12,000 vacancies across the hospital system because people with skills and experience simply can't afford to live in NSW and work in health."

Mr Hayes said the paramedics had designed the action "carefully and responsibly so that it enhances patient wellbeing".

'Return to the road' is part of a state-wide campaign, called 'Priority 1', which began with an online stop-work meeting on Friday, February 17 and will continue until the state election.