Rural SA Ambulance Service Workforce Plan

SAAS Workforce final planThe purpose of the SA Ambulance Service (SAAS) is ‘To save lives, reduce suffering, and enhance quality of life, through the provision of accessible and responsive quality patient care’. As the South Australian population demographic changes, and there is increasing requirement for services, SAAS must ensure it maintains a workforce that is equipped to meet the needs of the communities it serves.

The Rural SAAS Workforce Plan is one of the workforce plans developed as part of the Rural Health Workforce Strategy. The aim of the plan is to ensure that the types and levels of ambulance services delivered to regional communities meet current needs, are flexible enough to change in a proactive and considered manner when the needs of communities change, and take into account the needs and welfare of the paid and volunteer workforces.

Ceduna CPs David Jaensch Prue Cowell

Prue Cowell and David Jaensch, SAAS community paramedics in Ceduna

The Rural SAAS Workforce Plan was released by the Minister for Health and Wellbeing, the Hon Stephen Wade MLC, on 6 August 2020.

Strategies outlined in the plan include building new and sustainable models for rural emergency health care, expanding pathways to provide multidisciplinary training opportunities and care delivery, streamlining training, attracting and retaining more local people, and increasing technological support to clinicians in rural settings.

SAAS is leading the implementation of the plan, working in partnership with rural and metropolitan clinicians.

For more information, please contact Simone O’Dea on (08) 8150 3472 or at simone.odea@sa.gov.au