The Andrews Labor Government has recruited more than 100 new graduate paramedics in the past two months – helping our ambulance service respond to record demand, and ensuring Victorians can get the quality emergency care they need.

Premier Daniel Andrews and Minister for Ambulance Services Gabrielle Williams today visited the Ambulance Victoria (AV) Capability Hub at Victoria University’s Sunshine campus, an Australian-first dedicated education and training hub for paramedicine, to meet with some of the 118 new graduate paramedics.

A new purpose-built facility, the hub includes a range of training spaces to support the ongoing skills development of paramedics across the state, including the orientation and induction of this latest batch of new recruits.

54 new recruits hit the road last month, and another 64 will join them later this month, with almost half taking up roles in regional branches – including the Gippsland, Grampians, Hume and Loddon Mallee regions.

It follows two record years of recruitment for AV, which saw more than 1,300 paramedics join the organisation across 2021 and 2022 combined.

These new paramedics join the more than 6,200 healthcare workers recruited and trained through the Labor Government’s $12 billion Pandemic Repair Plan, including more than 2,000 recruited from overseas to bolster Victoria’s homegrown workforce.

Victoria’s paramedics have worked tirelessly through the peak winter period, facing a surge in demand with more than 1,000 Code 1 ’lights and sirens’ ambulances dispatched across the state each and every day.

Since coming to Government, we have invested more than $2 billion to recruit more than 2,200 additional paramedics, build new stations and deliver innovative models of care.

The Victorian Budget 2023/24 invested more than $277 million to meet increased demand, connect people to the right care and free up crews to respond to the most urgent cases.

As part of the Budget, we will deliver the new Centre for Paramedicine at Victoria University which will focus on training the next generation of paramedics, providing advanced teaching methods – with the capacity to train around 1,500 paramedic students each year.

Quotes attributable to Premier Daniel Andrews

“Whether you’re living in the city, the suburbs or regional Victoria – we’re recruiting more paramedics to make sure you get the emergency care you need, when you need it.”

“We’ve also established Priority Primary Care Centres and expanded the Victorian Virtual ED to give Victorians an alternative for when they need urgent, but not emergency care – reducing pressure on our ambos and EDs.”