The Hon. KAYEE GRIFFIN: My question without notice is directed to the Minister for Health. Will the Minister inform the House what action the State Government is taking to ensure that ambulance services are keeping pace with changing community needs?

The Hon. JOHN DELLA BOSCA: I thank the member for her question and ongoing interest in health issues. Our paramedics are very hardworking and attend more than one million callouts for emergency and non-emergency incidents each year. The Garling report into acute care services in public hospitals released late last year advised that we need to use ambulance resources and the skills of our paramedics more effectively. In achieving that goal, we must also respond to the changing health needs of the community.

I am pleased to inform the House that the New South Wales Government is trialling a new generation of ambulances that will allow paramedics to treat patients in their own homes. The new mini-ambulances are being trialled in Blacktown, Port Macquarie-Tuncurry and the Nepean area, and 10 of the $65,000 vehicles will be rolled out across the State this year. These vehicles are a part of New South Wales Ambulance's extended paramedic care initiative and were developed by paramedics for paramedics. They carry much more specialist equipment than standard ambulances and a wider range of medicines. Additional equipment carried by these ambulances includes: wound care kits, including dressings, burns dressings, suture packs and tissue glue; intra gastric tubes; splinting kits for sprains and fractures prior to x-ray and treatment; and an extensive range of drugs not normally used by paramedics in standard care ambulances, including specific antibiotics, advanced asthma drugs and inhalers.

The Hon. Duncan Gay: These are special ambulances to keep people out of the emergency departments.

The Hon. JOHN DELLA BOSCA: The Garling report also advised that we need to do more to alleviate the pressure on our emergency departments. Straight to the top of the class, Duncan! Providing treatment on the spot in people's homes is one way of achieving that. It means that patients do not need to be transported to an emergency department where they would have to wait while more seriously ill and injured patients are treated. The officers manning these ambulances attend to patients with minor injuries and illnesses, such as lacerations and wounds, sporting injuries, falls and minor back pain. Officers trialling the ambulance in the Blacktown area have now attended 4,000 cases, and the feedback from the community has been very positive.

In addition to the mini-ambulances, last month I inspected two new mega-lift ambulances designed to meet the needs of increasing numbers of obese people requiring transport to public hospitals. We now have five of these ambulances in service. Two are located in Sydney and the remaining three operate in western, southern and northern New South Wales. The ambulances—which cost $280,000 each—are used primarily to transport people who weigh in excess of 180 kilograms, or those whose girth is too large for a normal ambulance stretcher. The new ambulances feature hydraulic access ramps that can weigh patients and a specially designed stretcher fitted with a scissor-like hydraulic lifting system.

While the New South Wales Government is getting on with the job of delivering improved health services to families across the State, members Opposite continue to use our health system, the families it serves and the dedicated doctors and nurses who work within it as a political football. The people of New South Wales will again reject their cynical approach. The New South Wales Opposition has no plan and no vision when it comes to our public hospitals, and nothing positive to contribute to our health system.

The Hon. KAYEE GRIFFIN: I ask the Minister a supplementary question. Will the Minister elucidate his answer?

The Hon. JOHN DELLA BOSCA: The Government allocated $340 million for ambulance services in the New South Wales budget. That is $24.2 million more than last year.