Geoff Helisma Clarence MP Chris Gulaptis outlined his thoughts about establishing an ambulance station at Iluka in a ‘private member’s statement’ in the NSW Parliament last Thursday February 8. “[Iluka] deserves to have an ambulance station,” he said. Over recent years NSW Ambulance has, on average, attended callouts to the Iluka/Woombah area on a daily basis. The speech follows the tabling of an 11,500-signature petition in August 2017 (collected by residents Ann and John McLean) and a stall at the Iluka market on Sunday February 4, seeking interest in establishing a community first responder (CFR). Mr Gulaptis informed the House that there was a “need for emergency health services for the village of Iluka”. “Iluka … deserves to have high priority health services and emergency health services,” he said. He pointed out that the “population swells over Christmas with holiday-makers from far and wide”, noted the town’s “high proportion of older people” and “that the incidence of heart disease is more prevalent in older people”. “They should not be forced to leave their home and community to be closer to health services,” he said. According to the 2016 Census, “the median age of people in Iluka … was 62 years”; and 55 per cent of the town’s 1,718 people were aged 60 and over, compared to NSW (29.9 per cent) and Australia (21.4 per cent). Mr Gulaptis cited the number of calls seeking ambulance assistance, which he described as “significant enough to warrant consideration for an ambulance station”. “In 2015-16 there were 380 call-outs for ambulances for Iluka and Woombah, a nearby village, and in 2016-17 there were 344 call-outs to both villages,” he said. However, he also referred to Health Minister Brad Hazzard’s unsupportive response to the petition in September 2017, “because the Maclean ambulance station [30 minutes away] … has been upgraded to include seven additional paramedics and now operates 24/7”. The effectiveness of this “upgrade” is disputed by the NSW branch of the Australian Paramedics Association (ASA), which it claims is due to “the failure of NSW Ambulance to solve a dispute over new rosters”. “At least five critical 000 calls have been forced to wait too long for treatment over recent months because of the lack of local ambulance resources,” ASA delegate Mark Young told the Independent in December last year, when commenting on “response times in Maclean”. “These included emergency calls where patients were suffering cardiac arrest and had collapsed and were not breathing,” he said. Mr Gulaptis advised the parliament that the “Minister, [however], did advise that the township of Iluka has been identified as highly suitable for the establishment of a community first responder service”. “Indeed, Glenreagh, Nana Glen, Lowanna-Ulong and Coramba are serviced with community first responders, as are another 50 in other communities across NSW,” he said. “Having a first responder within the community would be a wonderful step towards saving lives and building resilience within the community. “I agree that it is a big call for volunteers but we already have these people within our community. “We already have first responder volunteers with the State Emergency Service, the Rural Fire Service, Marine Rescue and Road Crash Rescue. “Our volunteers are what make our regional communities so great.” The 2016 Census noted that the town had 325 volunteers (21.5 per cent, compared with the NSW average of 18.1 per cent) who “did voluntary work through an organisation or group” over the 12 months preceding the census, however, “no information was collected regarding hours worked”. Mr Gulaptis concluded his speech: “In the short term the establishment of a community first responder may help whilst the fight for an ambulance station continues. “I see this as a first step in the process, just as it was at South West Rocks, which started off with a community first responder and ended up with an ambulance station a few years later.” A full transcript is available in the Legislative Assembly Hansard for February 8.