❓ The Minister for Health provides an update on the government's reforms to ambulance services in WA, including details of the new five-year contract with St John Ambulance, increased funding, additional paramedics, enhanced KPIs, and addresses criticisms from the opposition.
AnsweredQoN 55Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
ST JOHN AMBULANCE —
CONTRACT
55. Mrs L.A. MUNDAY to the Minister for Health:
I refer to the McGowan Labor
government's initiatives to address ambulance ramping in Western Australia.
Can the minister please update the house on this government's reforms
to the delivery of ambulance services in WA, including the new St John
Ambulance contract?
CONTRACT
55. Mrs L.A. MUNDAY to the Minister for Health:
I refer to the McGowan Labor
government's initiatives to address ambulance ramping in Western Australia.
Can the minister please update the house on this government's reforms
to the delivery of ambulance services in WA, including the new St John
Ambulance contract?
AnswerView source ↗
I thank the member for Dawesville
for her question and her deep interest in this issue. As we all know, before
her parliamentary career, she was a professional paramedic for many, many years
serving our community.
I
also want to commend the unanimous report of the Standing Committee on Public
Administration, with cross-party representation from the opposition as
well as the government. In December last year, the government signed a new
five-year contract with St John Ambulance WA. This marks the biggest changes in
ambulance services in decades. It is really
a new era for our ambulance services. The contract commenced on 1 January this
year. It includes funding for an extra 10 ambulance crews in the
metropolitan area and 31 extra paramedics in regional areas, bringing the
uplift under this government for regional paid paramedics to 25 per cent since
we came to government. This well and truly exceeds our commitment of an extra
18 paramedics in the regions. Importantly, the contract will also have enhanced
KPIs, which will be enforceable through financial penalties, including response
time targets of 90 per cent for priority 1, 2
and 3 call-outs. As consistent with the committee's recommendations,
extended transfer of care payments will cease and new KPIs will be
introduced to reduce unnecessary emergency department presentations. There will
be greater powers to inspect services and step in to ensure performance
following success of the multiagency response that we established in May last
year.
We know that the Liberal Party, in particular, has peddled
shameless and misleading information about that multiagency response, which is
a great disservice to our very highly skilled emergency responders. It has been claimed by both Liberal members in this
place that the multiagency response has failed but, in fact, the figures show that it boosted St John's priority 1 response to 84 per cent from 75 per
cent. The members claimed there were no issues
other than ramping, ignoring the fact that crew numbers were actually 40 per
cent below establishment levels in May. I also note that the cross-party
Standing Committee on Public Administration unanimously identified these same issues. There are opposition members on that
committee. They made claims that somehow we are trying to gag St John
Ambulance. Ramping data is still freely available under this contract. We are
the only state that actually publishes this ramping data.
Mr S.A. Millman : We're
about transparency.
Ms A. SANDERSON : We are
transparent about our health system.
In June, Hon Martin Aldridge claimed
that St John Ambulance was living on year-to-year contracts, had received no
significant increase in funding and was only as good as the funding agreement
provided by the state government. In fact,
St John received a 16 per cent funding uplift in the 2021 financial year. It
was a two-year contract extension , and
we have now signed a five-year contract extension. I am genuinely looking
forward to working with the new CEO, Kevin Brown, and the chair, Sally
Carbon. I hold both of them in very high regard in this new era of delivering
our ambulance services.
for her question and her deep interest in this issue. As we all know, before
her parliamentary career, she was a professional paramedic for many, many years
serving our community.
I
also want to commend the unanimous report of the Standing Committee on Public
Administration, with cross-party representation from the opposition as
well as the government. In December last year, the government signed a new
five-year contract with St John Ambulance WA. This marks the biggest changes in
ambulance services in decades. It is really
a new era for our ambulance services. The contract commenced on 1 January this
year. It includes funding for an extra 10 ambulance crews in the
metropolitan area and 31 extra paramedics in regional areas, bringing the
uplift under this government for regional paid paramedics to 25 per cent since
we came to government. This well and truly exceeds our commitment of an extra
18 paramedics in the regions. Importantly, the contract will also have enhanced
KPIs, which will be enforceable through financial penalties, including response
time targets of 90 per cent for priority 1, 2
and 3 call-outs. As consistent with the committee's recommendations,
extended transfer of care payments will cease and new KPIs will be
introduced to reduce unnecessary emergency department presentations. There will
be greater powers to inspect services and step in to ensure performance
following success of the multiagency response that we established in May last
year.
We know that the Liberal Party, in particular, has peddled
shameless and misleading information about that multiagency response, which is
a great disservice to our very highly skilled emergency responders. It has been claimed by both Liberal members in this
place that the multiagency response has failed but, in fact, the figures show that it boosted St John's priority 1 response to 84 per cent from 75 per
cent. The members claimed there were no issues
other than ramping, ignoring the fact that crew numbers were actually 40 per
cent below establishment levels in May. I also note that the cross-party
Standing Committee on Public Administration unanimously identified these same issues. There are opposition members on that
committee. They made claims that somehow we are trying to gag St John
Ambulance. Ramping data is still freely available under this contract. We are
the only state that actually publishes this ramping data.
Mr S.A. Millman : We're
about transparency.
Ms A. SANDERSON : We are
transparent about our health system.
In June, Hon Martin Aldridge claimed
that St John Ambulance was living on year-to-year contracts, had received no
significant increase in funding and was only as good as the funding agreement
provided by the state government. In fact,
St John received a 16 per cent funding uplift in the 2021 financial year. It
was a two-year contract extension , and
we have now signed a five-year contract extension. I am genuinely looking
forward to working with the new CEO, Kevin Brown, and the chair, Sally
Carbon. I hold both of them in very high regard in this new era of delivering
our ambulance services.
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