More than 100 new positions are to be added to the State’s frontline emergency call-taker workforce to tackle the unprecedented demand on its services, which has been driven by the pandemic.
Announced by Minister for Emergency Services, Jaclyn Symes, a funding package is to deliver 120 new ongoing positions, as well as recruitment and community education campaigns.
“A comprehensive recruitment campaign is already underway to fill the new positions – which includes more than 50 in ambulance call-taking and dispatch – to build a bigger workforce to draw on during peak demand times, to train other call-takers and to better lead, support and manage teams,” Ms Symes said.
“All of the new positions will progressively come online by mid-2023,” she said.
“This extra capacity will mean a more consistent and stable number of call-takers rostered on each day, and more workers to draw on for overtime and extra shifts to meet higher call volumes.”
Ms Symes said the extra capacity would also enable the development of a new supervision structure to better support call-takers in the highly complex environment, improve call answer speeds and ensure patient safety remained paramount.
The Minister said funds would be provided for the Emergency Services Telecommunications Authority (ESTA) to establish a dedicated Contemporary Learning Centre with specialist, off-shift training resources to ensure ESTA could rapidly onboard new team members in the future.
“The Centre will train and mentor the hundreds of communication specialists required over the coming years and equip them with a Certificate II or Certificate III in Emergency Communications,” she said.
“This investment means training will be delivered without the need to take experienced call-takers offline.”
Ms Symes said ESTA was facing unprecedented strain from the effects of the pandemic, with calls for ambulances averaging nearly 4,000 a day during the peak of the Delta and Omicron wave in December and January.
She said the level of calls for help had outstripped the projected demand for 2021-22 by as much as 30 per cent at the height of the Omicron wave.
Ms Symes said the State had also commissioned an independent review into ESTA’s capability and services to provide longer-term reforms to support frontline call-takers into the future.
