Considering Moama’s population growth and its distance to other communities, NSW Ambulance identified Moama as a high-priority location for an ambulance station.
NSW Ambulance chief inspector and deputy operations manager Bruce Purves said the cross-border relationship with Ambulance Victoria would continue.
“When we open the station here, we’ll still have that cross-border relationship with Ambulance Victoria like we do elsewhere along the river,” he said.
“Any of the calls we get will go to the nearest available resource; could be our crew over here or could be Echuca.
“By Moama having its own ambulance, from NSW’s perspective, we’ll be able to offer them that service rather than having to rely on Echuca or Ambulance Victoria all the time.”
The station, proposed to be located on Wild Ave in Moama, will house five new paramedics and three new ambulance vehicles.
It will feature a medical storeroom, parking for emergency ambulance vehicles, on-site parking, admin spaces and staff amenities.
In the coming months, NSW Ambulance will advertise the paramedic positions internally across NSW to source the five paramedics.
Once the station is open, the station will be rostered to ensure a 24/7 service, with paramedics to be on-duty during the day and on-call at night.
Moama resident Gary Hozelman was one of the residents to attend the drop-in session.
Mr Hozelman said he was concerned about the proposed location of the station.
“I think it’s great that we will have this service, but my question was why it’s all the way out there when you’ve got a police station and a fire station just here,” he said.
“In most communities, you’d see all those resources in one little group.
“My main concern was if you had to rely on an ambulance coming from out there, especially in the middle of the day or even in the morning, there’s so much traffic on that section of road because of the industrial centre.”
Mr Purves explained that the station’s location was chosen based on a comprehensive service planning process, which includes best practice modelling software.
The software maps 000 calls and examines current response areas and potential station locations that will meet community needs.
Mr Purves also emphasised that the station was a base for paramedics, but ambulances woouldn’t always physically respond from the station, as they could be at any location, any time.
This also means that the Moama crew won’t always be the ones responding to an emergency, as calls will go to the closest ambulance vehicle, which may be Ambulance Victoria.
The Moama ambulance station is set to be operational before the end of the year.
If residents have any further questions about the station, call NSW Ambulance on 9978 5933 or email AMBULANCE-Community@health.nsw.gov.au
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