desert posted:

couldn't resists this one: your overtime rates are bloody fantastic AND there's heaps off it IF you want it AND your meal allowance is nothing to be scofted at either! Have a nice one ambo.

A firie.

Member - JohnR (Vic) posted:

Dave, I guess it is a city/country thing but it depends where people vote. Steve and co turned down the corporate offer of $20m for a share of a helecopter that could have been over the lost family at Warrnambool in minutes rather than the police helecopter next day.

geocacher (djcache) posted:

Thanks firie, you are right. The overtime is well paid.

The problem is there is more than we want and if you don't go to work when they ring you for the third, fourth or fifth time on your day off someone goes without an ambulance.

The recent Public Accounts and Estimates Commitee review of the Auditor Generals Report of 1999 found that in the past four years since the Auditor General for Victoria told the government that Ambulance in Victoria was broken and needed fixing the average component of a Victorian Ambos wage made up of overtime has gone from 17% to 37%.

Do you realise how many hours spent at work on overtime - read how little time spent in the 4wd in the middle of nowhere or with the family - it takes to nearly double your annual salary?

That wouldn't be so bad if it was one or two Paramedics here and there doing it because they want to, but it's not it's nearly all of us. The guys in the smaller branches who do call 7 nights in a row (ie Work dayshifts 8 days straight and are on call the seven nights between) are in a worse state still.

If Paramedics in Victoria even halved the amount of overtime they work the system would grind to a halt. The response times would blow out as a result of reduced numbers of crews available to attend incidents and people would die.

I hate it. Yes the money is good but I haven't the time to spend it. Cod season opened in Dec and I had a couple of days fishing which I had to take annual leave to get. Since I got back on the 13th of Dec I have had 3 days off and I don't finish until next Friday on this stretch. If I hadn't taken ADO's to get next Saturday and Sunday off I wouldn't be off again until the 14th of Jan! That would have been 3 days off in a month. Lucky I could get the ADO's but that just stuffed someone elses weekend because I still have to be replaced and that's done on overtime too.

It's that bad that my 4y/o daughter thinks I am going to work just because my mobile phone rings.

Oh and if you think the wage is that good compare it to the other emergency services in Victoria or to Nurses. Without shift penalties a Paramedic with 10 years experience in Victoria is on $19.89 an hour and is completely responsible for their clinical treatment and decision making. My wife is a nurse (they do a great job and I'm not criticising nurses here - merely drawing comparisons) who has 10 years experience, works in a controlled environment with a no lift policy to look after her back, who can't give drugs without a doctors authority, and earns $26 an hour.

Morale is as low in my station as the S.O. of 37 years has ever seen it.

Happy New Year to all my fellow EO members, may the next wreck I attend not be yours.

Pi$$ed off paramedic,

Dave

PS Sorry to have remained off topic. It's off my chest now. I'm done. Off to find another thread.

Member - JohnR (Vic) posted:

Dave, you know there is a fair bit of the Great Ocean Road that would not have an ambo within one hour despite the common need. It is up to volunteers. Somebody in Spring street reckons it is just a territory no one from the city ventures to.

Austravel posted:

Sorry to hear the work pressure your under. I used to work long hours quite some time ago and am very glad I don't now. The sad thing is though, that most of we tax payers would rather the systems be fixed even if it meant paying a tad more tax I'd rather see hospitals, ambulance, police, education etc, etc fixed. I'm sure there is enough money to do it now if they only set priorities but if it cost more and we could see changes I'd say stop decreasing tax and fix Australia's infrastructure problelms.

I know it's easy to say and maybe brutal but until you guys say no to keeping the present system going they will continue to use you till you drop. Maybe a selective overtime ban would make the public realise, I certainly didn't know it was that bad.

Member - Ray posted:

I'm a firie too.
Don't your mob know it's against the occ health and safety act to work that many hours? Who is going to be in thebleepwhen one of you stuffs up? Not your boss thats for sure. Where is your union? I suspect too many of your collegues enjoy the money too make a noise.

geocacher (djcache) posted:

JohnR,

The Great Ocean Rd is better off than it used to be. Lorne is a permanantly staffed branch now with professionals on duty all year.

The other Great Ocean Rd branches - Apollo Bay and Anglesea are staffed by Community Ambulance Officers who are casual staff paid for time worked only. In peak periods like now, these branches are usually staffed 24hrs by professional paramedics who work a relieving roster at these branches instead of their normal roster in Geelong or where ever they usually work.

There are no "volunteer" Ambulance Paramedics in Victoria. The Casual Ambulance Officers are highly trained first aiders who can even give some of the lower grade of drugs such as Anginine, Ventolin and Penthrane, and they are paid when they are called out. They are also usually coresponded as a first response with backup from professional paramedics from a professional branch which is further away.

Dave

geocacher (djcache) posted:

Ray,

I am well aware of the OH & S issues. When on call we are given 8 hour fatigue breaks from the end of the last call out until recommencing duty. ie. If you are called out from 0300 to 0400 and you were due to recommence shift at 0800 we remain on a break until 1200. There is provision to be called back from a break which some paramedics in remote areas will allow if they aren't knackered. For example you might get called out at 0545 after a good nights sleep and not finish until 0900 therefore depriving your town of an ambulance for the day if you go off fatigued as you wouldn't be back until 1700. If you had a good night's sleep you may take your break and rest at home but be available if required. If you are knackered and state you are fatigued you are unavailable until 8 hrs later.

They had to give me a late start on Monday at 1030 instead of my rostered 0700 start to make sure I had a 24hr break in my run of 15 shifts but they only did that so they didn't incur penalties on my 13th-15th shifts. Gee wow, a 3 hour sleep in. I was ecstatic as you can imagine.

We are being screwed by the Bracks government in EB negotiations at present - they terminated our bargaining period in the AIRC. One of the things they reject outright is the increase of fatigue breaks from 8 hour to 10 hours! For some reason they think that an hour to get home and back to sleep (if you can) and an hour to get ready and to work with 6 hours sleep in between is plenty - oh and they reckon it'll make rostering harder.

Our award conditions comply with the OH&S requirements. Thanks for your concern though.

Information on Victorian Ambulance Industrial Situation if you are interested.

Don't get me wrong. I love my job. I wouldn't do anything else. I'm sick of the way we are being treated by our employers and this government.

Dave

PS. Mark Knight summed it up fairly well:
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Member - JohnR (Vic) posted:

Dave,

I understand what you are saying about being better off with a station at Lorne. I am sorry I got the naming wrong about volunteer/casual but they is the quickest to the Great Ocean Road at the western end at say Port Campbell, the Twelve Apostles and may be even to Lavers Hill being half an hour to Princetown from Timboon. You guys would not be able to address the western end like that in anything under an hour from places like Colac, Camperdown or Terang. I believe it would take a lot longer.

The health minister neglects continually the whole area but has asserted a new depot at Nullawarre 15 minutes from Warrnambool will serve the area.

Don't get me wrong, I have a lot of respect for the casuals and have relied on them on occasions. I agree with you though too, that you are not being properly supported, whether at management or political decision level.

geocacher (djcache) posted:

Hi JohnR,

The last person I feel like defending at the moment is Aunty Bronny but unfortunately Ambulance Stations have to be placed according to workload.

Road accidents make up about 7% of our work or less in many areas. Stations aren't placed to attend accidents, they are placed to deal with medical emergencies which included cardiac, respiratory and other problems and they occur at higher frequency in areas which have more substantial populations for the whole of the year. They occur less frequently in areas with fluctuating/seasonal populations.

This means (unfortunately for those who live out of towns) that stations are generally in areas with a larger and constant population base.

There are other issues too. With the high level of care Victorian Paramedics provide (near world leading in range of drugs and skills) there are issues of skills maintenance in low workload areas. It is very hard to remain competant in a station that has a low workload. (This is a bigger issue in remote QLD than here too. They have a station up there where the paramedic statistically will work less than 60 seconds of every shift on a patient!)

Even here in central Victoria we routinely do code 1's to jobs that are 50-60 km away, and rightly or wrongly have towns with populations of 2000+ without stations. Most of the time they work out, but if you have a cardiac arrest more than 10km from your nearest Ambulance you are almost certainly cactus, if you have it anywhere and no one starts CPR early you are probably cactus anyway.

If it's an MCA it depends what you hit, how hard and whether your number's up. Our response time will help save you but so will good first aid early at scene. If it's serious it will probably also make a difference how close to Melbourne you are and if a chopper is available too. (Or often fixed wing is faster at the farther reaches of the state.)

The AEA estimates rural Vic needs another 200 Paramedics to address shortfalls, and the metropolitan areas need 300 to address shortfalls there too.

Unfortunately remote locations are great places to live but there are tradeoffs. And city dwellers still have to wait for ambulances too as there aren't enough to go around.

Ironically we recently gained approval for a new branch near here, construction will start soon. The minister announced (public media release) she had employed the 5 paramedics required to staff it and provided two brand new ambulances for them to work from our branch until theirs was completed. The ambulances certainly turned up, only thing was the positions were never advertised, and certainly never filled. More political BS.

Dave

Austravel posted:

Thanks

Austravel posted:

Thanks sounds normal then, I'm still testing to see what difference speed and load makes.

Austravel posted:

Thanks, I wondered if the wagons get the same fuel economy. Why do they get better, do they have different gearing????

sevo posted:

Gday Austravel,
Just completed a 780km trip and got 7.5km per litre out of my 04 4.2 wagon. didnt drive for economy (i have mods etc ) but still reasonable economy.
cheers Steve

Austravel posted:

Not bad. Do you know if there are any differences between the utes and wagons that would limit getting similar economy??

sevo posted:

the only differance i know is that utes have a 4.11 final drive and wagons have 3.9.

Austravel posted:

So reving faster for a given speed. Maybe this could be the reason for the wagons marginally better fuel economy, do you think?

sevo posted:

i have checked the sales brochures and the work shop manual and would have to agree with you.
Steve

Austravel posted:

Thanks Steve.

Austravel posted:

Thanks I'm thinking of doing this. I'm still tossing up whether to spend the $3k or not that will increase output and hopefully fuel economy.

Austravel posted:

I was thinking of the mods a few on this forum have done which include the exhaust as you suggest. I think the full mods cost from $2.5k to $3k. I'd love to do it but not sure if I'll keep the car for the time you'd need to make it worthwhile.

Austravel posted:

Thanks for your thoughts. Mines pretty much the same as yours except for the boat racks. I'm pretty sure your right, just a few minor differences can add up to 10% difference in economy. Do you find much difference in fuel economy when fully loaded as opposed to empty?

Flash posted:

Friend had the turbo mod done by DTS?? I think in Toowoomba. (bigger turbo impeller, bigger exhaust. They do an exchange on the turbo and machine out the old housing.)
Wow- huge increase in power, huge increase in economy, lower EGT.
Cheers

Austravel posted:

Thanks Flash. This is one of the guys I was thinking of following up. DTS, Motoson's and the group that Chris (on this forum) used seem to be able to work the 4.2 motor to it's optimium without going to the extreme. The $$ range up to about $3 depending on what you want, including exhaust, EGT gauge, turbo and pump mods. I've held off until I get the camper finished and see how much of a slug it is and until my next trip to Brisy. Motson's have a good name, DTS similar and have franchises around my area and Chris's mob got better results with less mods (from memory). May just have to bit the bullet and spend the cash even if I change vehicles in a few years.

Austravel posted:

Hadn't realised they were one and the same. Had hoped loading wouldn't make a huge difference, unlike my old petrol version, loaded and high speed would see me use 150 litres in around 600 k's.
Thanks