News

The VAU have NOT been consulted on this proposal and do not support a program to upskill ACOs to fill paramedic shifts in Bendigo.

This morning the Victorian Ambulance Union Incorporated (VAU) was informed that Ambulance Victoria (AV) is proposing to introduce a new training program to ‘upskill’ Ambulance Community Officers (ACOs).

The proposal has been described to the VAU as a way to introduce upskilled ACOs into major regional centres, beginning in Bendigo, before being expanded across the State (Bendigo Model).

The VAU have NOT been consulted on this proposal and do not support a program to upskill ACOs to fill paramedic shifts in Bendigo.

Basis for the current ACO model

Under the Ambulance Victoria Enterprise Agreement 2015 (Varied and Extended) and the proposed Ambulance Victoria Enterprise Agreement 2020 (AVEA2020), ACOs are engaged to provide first response and care to rural and remote communities where the emergency/acute caseload at such locations does not support the establishment of a permanent branch staffed by paramedics.

The emergency caseload in Bendigo well and truly supports the establishment of more paramedic resources. For this reason, the VAU have been actively lobbying the Victorian Government to bring forward election commitments for new paramedic resources in Bendigo.

For completeness we confirm that we have just finished an extensive enterprise bargaining process where AV refused VAU claims to introduce on-call allowances for ACOs and extra training to qualify ACOs to perform Patient Transport Officer (PTO) duties to assist with low acuity transports and interhospital transfers in rural locations (this would attract a higher rate of pay than the ACO pay rate). At no point did AV submit any claims to upskill ACOs to perform emergency work in major regional centres.

It now appears that while we were finalising the AVEA2020, AV have been engaged in a parallel negotiation process to introduce a new cohort of ACOs to fill paramedic shifts in Bendigo.

Our ACOs perform remarkable work in remote and rural communities where the workload does not justify paramedic resources and where the employer has first taken reasonable measures to exhaust paramedic options to respond to cases. This is the established resource model and is reflected in the terms of the current and proposed enterprise agreement which all parties have signed off on.

Next steps

The VAU will be writing to AV and the Victorian Government urgently to communicate that we do not support this change to the resourcing model. We will continue to advocate for increased professional paramedic resourcing in Bendigo and other rural areas.

*IMPORTANT MESSAGE TO ALL MEMBERS – METRO AND RURAL*

Industrially the introduction of a new program to train ACOs for emergency response in major regional centres is an extremely dangerous precedent to set. Should any future Government attempt to cut costs in the Ambulance Industry, such as by moving towards the American EMT/Paramedic model, the new Bendigo Model will have created a perfect roadmap for that to occur.

Victoria has always prided itself on having the best ambulance service in the world. The VAU have a responsibility to protect the professional paramedic model we have in Victoria. This is not a change that the VAU will endorse.

In solidarity,