Twenty new highly-skilled paramedics are ready to hit the road and start saving lives as part of the latest class of graduates to join the Ambulance Victoria workforce, thanks to the Allan Labor Government’s ongoing support for Victoria’s paramedics and the patients they serve.

Minister for Ambulance Services Mary-Anne Thomas today attended the graduation ceremony at Ambulance Victoria’s new Capability Hub – Australia’s first and only education and training hub for paramedicine.

In the latest class of graduates, 19 are now fully qualified Advanced Life Support (ALS) paramedics, having completed their university studies and a year of supervised on-road placements – most graduate paramedics will be qualified in ALS, meaning they can provide sick and injured Victorians care, treatment and transport to hospital.

Another has completed further studies to become a Mobile Intensive Care Ambulance (MICA) paramedic allowing them to provide a higher level of care – performing more advanced medical procedures and making complex clinical decisions without medical consultation.

This can include dealing with advanced airway management, complex head injuries, treating life-threatening chest injuries and providing advanced care for cardiac conditions.

In total, 516 paramedics will be celebrating their graduation this year and next year – adding to the more than 1,300 paramedics who have joined the ranks since 2021.

These new paramedics are part of the more than 7,000 healthcare workers recruited and trained through the Allan Labor Government’s $12 billion Pandemic Repair Plan – including more than 2,000 recruited from overseas.

Victoria’s paramedics have worked tirelessly through unprecedented levels of demand, including 96,594 Code 1 cases alone in the July to September quarter of this year – paramedics have also directed more than 40,000 Triple Zero callers to the Victorian Virtual Emergency Department for more appropriate levels of care.

In the Victorian Budget 2023/24, more than $277 million has been invested to meet increased this demand, connect people to the right care, freeing up crews to respond to the most urgent cases.

This investment delivers on the Labor Government’s promise to Victorians at last year’s election to deploy 25 Paramedic Practitioners by 2026 and establish the Centre for Paramedicine in partnership with Victoria University – both Australian-firsts – as well as the ongoing work to train additional 40 MICA paramedics.

Since 2014, the Labor Government has invested more than $2 billion to recruit more than 2,200 additional paramedics, deliver 35 new or upgraded ambulance stations with construction on another 16 currently underway, and introduce innovative models of care.