Mr CRITTENDEN (Wyong) [5.27]: I raise the issue of ambulance services on the Central Coast in general and in the Wyong electorate in particular. As honourable members will be aware, I have asked a number of questions in this House, both with and without notice, about this matter, which has been the subject also of a grievance debate. Recently it has been brought to my attention that a study was conducted involving an analysis of the staffing and casualty workload in the Brisbane Water area. That study is germane to the issues I raised previously in the grievance debate. In that debate I referred to the cascading effect which virtually deprived the Central Coast of the staffing numbers for one ambulance station when a new ambulance station was established at Terrigal. At present the Brisbane Water ambulance service has 114 staff. I am reliably informed that 24 relief personnel are needed to service the 114 permanent staff. Therefore a total of 138 personnel are needed. However, the total staff required on the Central Coast is 136. A relief complement of 28 staff is needed. Therefore the total number of staff needed is 164, an agreed figure under the ambulance staffing formula.

Unfortunately the Government is not adhering to that formula. A survey conducted from 1st June to 30th June revealed a total of 307 staff shortage days. That is more than 10 officers absent per day. In some days in July as many as 16 officers were off duty. Staff shortages occur for a number of reasons: training, long service leave, sick leave, workers' compensation et cetera. From 1st May to 31st May inclusive, the response time was 11.2 minutes. From 1st June to 30th June, the response time was 10.19 minutes. The reduction in response time between the two months was largely a result of an improved shift arrangement. In May 109 cases had a response time greater than 15 minutes. In June 128 cases had a response time greater than 15 minutes. In a paper published in the Medical Journal of Australia on 14th November, 1981, Dr Taylor, Dr Selig and others pointed out that from their research, where ambulance personnel took more than 10 minutes to reach a patient who had suffered a cardiac arrest, the patient had virtually no chance of survival. Apparently a condition known as ventricular fibrillation occurs and makes it difficult for ambulance personnel to revive a patient who has suffered a cardiac arrest if there has been an interval of more than 10 minutes since the arrest occurred.

The ambulance officers on the Central Coast work very diligently and with great care to ensure that an excellent service is provided to residents. But those officers cannot duplicate or replicate themselves in order to do another job as well. Additional staffing is required. Between 1st May and 23rd June the ambulance station at Avalon responded to 73 casualty calls and on 21 days had no calls at all. However, Bateau Bay responded
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to 314 calls and had casualty calls every day during that same period. The workload at Bateau Bay is 430 per cent greater than that of Avalon. This North Shore Government is clearly looking after North Shore people at the expense of people in my electorate of Wyong and in other Central Coast electorates. No matter which way one looks at it, the statistics are an indictment of any government, let alone a government that claims to manage better. However, even more depressing is the fact that the statistics concern the health and well-being of human beings. The ambulance officers on the Central Coast have a major morale problem. To a large measure that morale problem has been caused by this Government and in particular by the Minister for Health Services Management. The Minister is proposing that there be voluntary ambulance personnel. He is following his colleagues the Minister for Police and Emergency Services, who will have weekend police - though I might add that the police in Dubbo do not believe it will happen - and the failed former Minister for Corrective Services, who was going to have voluntary gaolers.

Mr ACTING-SPEAKER (Mr Merton): Order! The honourable member's time for speaking has expired.

Mr PHILLIPS (Miranda), Minister for Health Services Management [5.32]: I was interested to hear the honourable member speak of low morale among ambulance officers on the Central Coast. The only low morale on the Central Coast is among those very, very few ambulance officers with whom the honourable member spoke, because of the continuous scaremongering that the honourable member goes on with. There is an excellent ambulance service on the Central Coast.

[Interruption]

Mr ACTING-SPEAKER: Order! The Minister has the call.

Mr PHILLIPS: Opposition members laugh. I have been there and spoken with them, and I get the facts. When one examines the facts to see what is happening on the Central Coast one realises that it was this Government that built the extra ambulance stations in that region. Did the honourable member look at the ambulance station at The Entrance? It was a scumbag ambulance station at The Entrance; it was disgraceful. You would not even want to use it as a dog pound, it was so bad.

[Interruption]

Mr ACTING-SPEAKER: Order! The Minister will be heard in silence.

Mr PHILLIPS: It was this Government that built the ambulance stations on the Central Coast.

[Interruption]

Mr ACTING-SPEAKER: Order! I call the honourable member for Wyong to order.

Mr PHILLIPS: When one looks at the statistics of ambulance services on the Central Coast, and I do not have the exact figures with me because the honourable member, as usual, did not have the courtesy - most members on his side of the House would have extended the courtesy - to let the Minister's office know that a particular matter is to be -

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Mr Crittenden: On a point of order. Before I spoke in the grievance debate -

Mr ACTING-SPEAKER: Order! There is no point of order. The honourable member will resume his seat.

Mr Crittenden: - I advised the Minister and he said he did not want to know about it.

Mr ACTING-SPEAKER: Order! There is no point of order. The honourable member will resume his seat.

Mr PHILLIPS: The honourable member has just proved to me that he is the greatest liar in this place. He has not spoken to me today, yet he said here on a point of order that he spoke to me outside this Chamber; and he lied.

Mr Crittenden: On a point of order. If you will not listen to what I said, Mr Acting-Speaker, I would ask the Minister to withdraw the word liar because I find it offensive. What passes for debate in this House from the Government side I do not believe is appropriate from anyone, let alone a Minister of the Crown.

Mr PHILLIPS: I withdraw the word liar, but there is no question that I have not spoken to that member outside, nor has he advised my office of his intention to speak on this matter. My memory serves me correctly on this.

[Interruption]

Mr PHILLIPS: Are you going to listen? You raised the point. Do you want the facts?

Mr ACTING-SPEAKER: Order! I call the honourable member for Wyong to order for the second time.

Mr PHILLIPS: The fact is that the average time taken to attend call-outs on the Central Coast is well within the average laid down within New South Wales, and I think that is about 10 minutes; and in Sydney it is better than that. The other important point is that the amount of time spent in the station is higher than it is anywhere else in New South Wales.

Mr ACTING-SPEAKER: Order! The Minister's time for speaking has expired.