Premier Gladys Berejiklian, Treasurer Dominic
Perrottet and Health Minister
Brad Hazzard announced more than $1 billion
will be invested in ambulance services and
capital in the NSW Budget 2018.
“Providing world-class care for patients is a priority for the NSW Government, and this Budget provides our paramedics with the support they need
to
deliver even
better services for our community,” Ms
Berejiklian said.
Mr Perrottet said the Budget included $944 million in recurrent expenditure
- up $51.3
million from last year’s Budget -
and an additional $72 million
in capital
works.
“Today’s Budget announcement is clear proof that the Liberals & Nationals Government uses the resources
of our strong economy to better service our emergency frontline
health
services,” Mr
Perrottet said.
Mr Hazzard said
communities across
the State would benefit from the employment and
training of the first round of 200 extra paramedics in
the coming 12 months.
“We identified that the community needed more paramedics and that our valued paramedics needed
more resources to properly do their job,” Mr
Hazzard said.
“This record
boost to the paramedic workforce will improve paramedic safety and
wellbeing and,
importantly, their continued service to the
community.”
The investment of more than $1 billion in services
and capital works includes:
- $23.7 million in 2018-19 to employ an additional
200 paramedics and
13 call centre staff
(part of 700 paramedics and
50
call centre staff over
the next four years) to improve response times, reduce paramedic fatigue
and support safety.
- $18.5 million to support the rollout of the Government’s Critical
Communications
Enhancement Program, which
will
expand the
Government
Radio Network
coverage and improve critical communications during emergencies.