The crews previously had two crews on during the busy day shift and ran an on-call roster for the night shift but despite having six more paramedics there is less coverage during the day because of the daily rostered night shift.

Ned Gavranic the southern liaison officer at the Australian Paramedics Association said that they were seeing response times double because other areas such as Eden were having to be called to assist or off-duty paramedics were being called in.

NSW Ambulance figures show the median time for urgent and life-threatening responses to be 10 minutes. However in one case in July it was 20 minutes and in another case in December it was 25 minutes.

In the July case Eden was tasked to cover until a Merimbula ambulance was available.

In the December case two off-duty Merimbula paramedics were called to respond. This would have required them to put on uniforms, travel to the station to get the ambulance, check on drugs and equipment before attending the call out.

Mr Gavranic cited a more potentially alarming case where a patient collapsed and was taken to hospital by family members when an ambulance was not available. The News Weekly has been unable to independently verify this particular report.

Mr Gavranic, a frontline paramedic said that a roster proposed by the union would make more paramedics available during the day and early evening.

“There has been a massive blow-out in response times and the lack of an emergency department at Pambula Hospital is adding to the burden. There is more time being spent on the road and longer times away from the area,” he said.

Patients are now being taken to Bega Hospital, a round trip of 60 kilometres, which leaves the Merimbula community with no local ambulance coverage until the crew returns. Merimbula emergency callers have to wait for an ambulance to come from Eden, Bega or even Bermagui. Then, those towns are depleted so more lives are at risk, the APA has said.

But in a statement NSW Ambulance said it was not aware of any incidents or any adverse outcomes due to roster changes in recent months where critically injured patients or patients suffering life-threatening medical emergencies had to wait due to a delayed ambulance.

“NSW Ambulance is committed to ensuring that Merimbula and surrounding communities have timely access to paramedic care in the case of a medical emergency. In June this year an additional six paramedics were assigned to Merimbula, doubling the workforce to 12,” a spokesperson said.

“The increase in paramedics and corresponding reduction in fatigue by not requiring paramedics to respond to medical emergencies from their home after they have completed a shift, is very much in the interests of both the paramedics and the local community of Merimbula. Over the worst winter flu season on record, response times across Southern NSW have remained stable, despite the highest number of incidents ever reported,” the spokesperson added.

Health Services Union delegate at Merimbula Chris Branson said that Merimbula was often “down a car” during the busy daytime period.

“It’s a matter of shuffling the pieces on the chess board. We warned the ambulance service that everyone in the southern end of the shire would be back filling. One day there will be a critical job that will come in that no one can cover,” Mr Branson warned.

However Mr Branson was at pains to stress that anyone who thinks they need an ambulance should not hesitate to call one.

It is believed the new roster was introduced to deal with two issues. The first related to the opening of SERH and the need for a 24 hour ambulance service attached to the new regional hospital.

The second issue was the amount of hours – often 70 hours a week – paramedics were working at Merimbula. As a health and safety issue it had to be dealt with through a new roster and more staff but the union and the APA both say that a different roster would provide better outcomes for everyone including the community.

Both Mr Gavranic and Mr Branson have urged the community to take any concerns in writing to the local member, Andrew Constance.

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