The South Australian (SA) government has begun its recruitment of the 350 additional ambulance officers promised at the state election in March.
A new intern cohort of 32 paramedic graduates are set to start work on Monday, the first of 278 new paramedics and 72 new ambulance officers to be added to the SA ambulance service over four years.
The $124 million (US$89 million) investment came as part of last week’s budget release and is one of the measures the Labor government is employing to relieve pressure on ambulance staff, improve currently poor response times, and fix the state’s ramping crisis.
Ramping refers to when paramedics are required to continue to care for patients instead of handing over clinical responsibility to the emergency department (ED)….