Tea Gardens Ambulance Station will see two new paramedics.
TWO full-time paramedics were set to arrive in Tea Gardens this month but delays in recruiting have pushed the date back until at least mid September.
The NOTA was assured by a NSW Ambulance spokesman that the two paramedics which had been promised for the station would still be arriving before the end of the year.
‘‘A husband and wife were on the transfer list but they ended up declining the positions,’’ the spokesman said.
‘‘Now we’ve gone to recruitment through an internal network.’’
He said the application process had now been closed and interested applicants were in the process of being assessed for the positions.
‘‘We are working as fast as we can and as soon as we can, we will get them there,’’ he said.
The recruitment of the two positions comes after roughly 800 people attended a protest meeting in Tea Gardens late last year to voice concerns about delayed ambulance response times. Residents then formed a task force to address concerns about ambulances being called to jobs in areas as far away as Newcastle. Trevor Cook, of the task force, said he was pleased to see things were moving ahead. He said the new staff would allow paramedics to be on duty at Tea Gardens Ambulance Station 16 hours a day.
‘‘Before we would be lucky to have them there 10 hours a day,’’ he said.
The changes will up staff numbers at the station from five to seven.
