Port Augusta ambulance station will receive an upgrade to accommodate extra vehicles, and a six-person regional transfer crew will be recruited, as the State Government attempts to ease the pressure on stretched paramedics.
The crew, which will be made up of three paramedics and three ambulance officers, will not be in place until July 2025.
Health Minister Chris Picton visited the Port Augusta ambulance station yesterday, along with the Premier, to make the announcement.
He said there would be additional regional transfer crews in Whyalla and Peterborough, and an additional emergency paramedic crew in Wallaroo.
"[Transfer crews] have been proven to be very useful across regional South Australia in being able to do transfer work to take the pressure off the emergency crews and also help in an emergency situation," Mr Picton said.
He said it would "take time to bring those additional crews on board".
"At the moment we are training more paramedics in South Australia than we are employing people," he said.
"There is an opportunity to employ those additional paramedics, but we have to do it in a staged way, and we have set out a very clear program for where those paramedics and ambulance officers are going to go."
More space for vehicles and beds
Upgrades to the ambulance station will begin in the next few weeks and will see additional garage spaces and extra manoeuvring room to hold eight vehicles.
There will also be more accommodation for up to 40 staff members and extra fire safety systems.
Premier Peter Malinauskas said the work would start in November and be completed by the end of next year.
"Earlier this year I had the chance to spend some time with ambulance officers in the Upper Spencer Gulf and hear their cries firsthand for additional resources," Mr Malinauskas said.
"We've got a situation across the state where ambulance response times are some of the worst we've ever seen in the history of the state.
"This is an exciting redevelopment not just for Port Augusta but for the whole Upper Spencer Gulf.
"What happens in Port Augusta affects what happens in Port Pirie, which affects what happens in Whyalla and the Upper Yorke Peninsula, which is why we've got more resources allocated across the system."
Resources stretched thin
Bruce Wilhelm has been working as an ambulance officer in Port Augusta since 1993.
He said the workload had increased over the years and now there were fewer volunteers.
"We do a lot of patient transferring to Port Pirie and Whyalla," Mr Wilhelm said.
"Our response team went to a vehicle accident at Leigh Creek the other night.
"We've got a big patch that we look after with our two crews and if we have to do a transfer to Whyalla then the operation becomes stretched.
"If everyone's here working then we still have the bare minimum crew, if we have one person off then it becomes problematic."
