Residents across South Western Sydney have today been left without Intensive Care Paramedics thanks to the lack of resourcing from the NSW Government.

There is normally one dedicated Intensive Care Paramedic vehicle during the day at Campbelltown, with two paramedics operating it. They are the only dedicated Intensive Care Paramedics for South West Sydney, south of Liverpool. However this vehicle is not on the road today according to NSW Ambulance.

Intensive Care Paramedics are highly skilled paramedics who are trained to perform advanced medical procedures including complex life-saving procedures. This includes newborn resuscitation and life threatening cardiac complications.

Ambulance response times have continued to get worse with recent BHI data revealing across Campbelltown that the median time it took an ambulance to reach the highest emergency cases has risen to more than 14 minutes.

Comments from Ryan Park, Shadow Minister for Health:

“Thanks to this Government what we have is a health system that have been under-resourced and completely overstretched.

“Our paramedics are under enormous pressure and with fewer paramedics on the road today, lives are being put at risk.

“We have already seen that ambulance response times are at record highs and this Government is doing nothing to ease that.”

Comments from Greg Warren, Shadow Minister for Western Sydney and Member for Campbelltown:

“This is a result of the NSW Government’s refusal to adequately staff, resource and fund our local hospital and health services.

“Given the number of COVID-19 cases still each day, you would think the NSW Government would be investing more into intensive care.

“This is a diabolical and disgraceful situation.”