Sep 13, 2010
Parliamentary committee recommends paramedic registration
By Amy Cotton on May 13th, 2010
The Destined to Fail Report was tabled in the Western Australian Parliament on 6 May by the Education and Health Standing Committee. (Tabled Papers Nos. 2057-59).
The Report is in two volumes with Volume 2 dealing with the Community Health Sector. It is notable that the Committee deals with the matter of Paramedic Registration in Chapter 13. In particular, on p296 Section 13.3 St John Ambulance Service, the Committee states:
(a) Background
State and Territory governments are responsible for the regulatory arrangements for protecting life and have the primary responsibility for delivering emergency services such as ambulance services to the community. Ambulance services provide critical out-of-hospital Emergency Medical Services (EMS) with SJA attending over 190,000 cases in Western Australia in 2008-09. At this stage of the Federal health reform process, EMS doesn’t register in any significant way in policy discussions or receive direct funding from the Federal health budget. Nor is there a national regulatory scheme for the independent accreditation of statutory and private contract service providers, such as the SJA, and paramedics are not listed as allied health professionals by the Commonwealth.344
Finding 96
There is currently no registration body to regulate paramedics.
Recommendation 59
The Western Australian Government should cooperate with the Federal Government in recognising paramedics as a professional group by establishing a registration scheme to ensure accountability for their activities, enhance quality standards and support robust clinical governance of their activities.
Also citing: 344 Mr Ray Bange, ‘Paramedics forgotten in our health care debate’, 30 June 2009. Available at: www.crikey.com.au/2009/06/30/paramedics-forgotten-in-our-health-care-debate/. Accessed on 23 October 2009
ACAP welcomes this strong and unequivocal support from a significant government body for the principle of independent registration of paramedics. It looks forward to a similar enlightened approach from other State and Territory jurisdictions.