Paramedics standing their ground in the Hunter

From today, local paramedics will go against Health Department rules and leave non-urgent patients at hospitals, so they can respond to life-threatening emergencies.

The Return To The Road campaign has kicked off amid growing tensions between paramedics and the department, over hospital ramping.

Current rules require paramedics to wait with patients until they are transferred over to hospital staff – a process which can take hours if there are no beds or staff available to transfer to.

That means paramedics are forced to sit and wait leaving triple-zero calls to pile up until they can hand the patient over.

The action will see patients aged 18 to 85, who are deemed to be stable, left so that ambulances can get back on the road.

NSW Labor say they would appoint an expert of clinician to oversee patient flow and improve operations if they’re elected this weekend.

X
X