A large resident turnout gathered at a recent meeting with Ambulance Services NSW officials to discuss the state of current and future ambulance services in Bundeena Maianbar. With a number of viewpoints being raised not all parties saw eye to eye.
The gathering took place at the Bundeena Progress Association May meeting and included NSW State MP Paul McLeay, three representatives from Ambulance Service NSW as well as representatives from the newly formed Ambulance Action Group
The meeting was triggered by the withdrawal of on call services by three local ambulance paramedics who live in Bundeena. Previously an arrangement had been in place where these paramedics performed on-call duties for the Bundeena Maianbar area as well as the Royal National Park after their normal roster which was based outside of the Park. However, with 190 callouts last year it appears the extended hours these paramedics had to work has made the arrangement untenable. Furthermore, with one of the paramedics planning to retire in the next year and a second who is possibly moving out of Bundeena the resumption of the on-call arrangement is in doubt.
While emergency responses are now being serviced out of Engadine and Caringbah Ambulance Stations concerns have been sparked that this is inadequate given the remote nature of Bundeena Maianbar. Ambulance Service NSW target response time is 16 minutes but Engadine, the closer of the two stations, is 25 minutes away.
Paul McLeay and Ambulance Service NSW representatives have indicated that Bundeena and Maianbar do not currently have a large enough population nor is there sufficient demand for emergency ambulance services to the area to support location of a full-time professional ambulance service in either community. Instead they are investigating alternative solutions such as expanding the pool of officers providing on-call services or partnering with other emergency service organisations such as NSW Fire Brigade.
These alternative solutions being proposed though have not appeased the Ambulance Action Group. The group instead proposes sharing the existing Bundeena fire station with a new premise for an emergency service. In the interim they also propose rostering all the on-call officers servicing Bundeena Maianbar to work at the same station. This along with moving officers to stations closer to where they live and providing them with an ambulance vehicle to commute to work with. These interim measures are claimed will simplify rostering as well as reducing travel time and fatigue for the ambulance officers involved.
