Paul Gaughan's shoulders have felt a little lighter ever since a fellow paramedic arrived in Esperance.
He can only imagine how he will react at the end of the year, when the number of St John WA paramedics in the WA South Coast town is expected to quadruple.
For almost 12 years, Mr Gaughan has been the only paramedic servicing the massive Esperance region.
The area Mr Gaughan covers extends 107 kilometres west to Munglinup, 126 kilometres north to Salmon Gums and 190 kilometres east to Israelite Bay, and is prone to everything from farming accidents, to shark attacks and major road trauma.
"I was probably a little bit like a frog boiling in water," Mr Gaughan said.
"I have really noticed the psychological load that's been lifted, just by being able to hand over the phone and the keys and not have to worry about anything [after work]."
At the end of last month, the state government announced a new contract with St John WA would result in an extra 31 paid paramedics being sent to WA's regions — four of whom would be stationed in Esperance, likely by Christmas.
Mr Gaughan said one extra paramedic has arrived in Esperance so far and has already made a huge difference.
"Over the last decade, the job numbers have grown quite a lot," Mr Gaughan said.
"We've been virtually the busiest volunteer sub centre in the state — we do about 1,400-plus jobs a year.
"So we really welcome those added resources."
'Quite a good thing for volunteers'
The Esperance St John WA sub-centre has been particularly short on volunteers since COVID.
Last year, an ambulance based at Condingup, 70 kilometres east, was sent back to town because there were so few people around to drive it.
While Mr Gaughan said volunteers were still needed to operate in the smaller areas, he said the new paramedics would see them better supported.
In town, he said one paramedic and one volunteer would ideally work together.
"And there's added benefits because each time a volunteer goes out with a paramedic, then they can be mentored by the paramedic so they're learning to assist the paramedic in delivery of their skills," he said.
"So it can be quite a good thing for volunteers as well."
He also said the change would improve response times, because crews would be expected to stay at the sub-centre and react straight away.
Asked whether there would be enough for four paramedics to do, Mr Gaughan said although there would be days where no jobs came in, they would be ready to respond on the days when six jobs did.
While Mr Gaughan is a community paramedic, which has a large training component, and the new roles are for career paramedics, who attend jobs, he is not yet sure how the change will impact his role.
In a statement, a St John spokesperson said it worked with WA Country Health Service and the Department of Health to determine locations for additional resources.
"St John is developing transition plans in close collaboration with local teams to ensure the service suits individual community circumstances," it said.
"Volunteers remain a part of the St John emergency ambulance delivery model."
