Last week, 127 Triple-0 calls were referred into secondary triage by Ambulance Tasmania, with 31 of those referred on to other response pathways.
Secondary triage is a brand new service in Tasmania that builds on the existing clinical assessment by Ambulance Tasmania’s highly trained staff.
Paramedics and nurses are providing secondary triage by speaking directly with patients when a Triple-0 call comes in and connecting them immediately to appropriate health services, to ensure the caller gets the right care, in the right place, at the right time.
Importantly, emergency calls requiring an ambulance response continue to have an ambulance dispatched, but this initiative also allows us to maximise the availability of our ambulances and paramedics for genuine emergency situations.
Tasmanians can have confidence that secondary triage will not only help people access appropriate medical care, it will also provide better support for our paramedics, help our resources respond more efficiently to emergencies, and avoid transport to hospital emergency departments when it is not required.
The Tasmanian Liberal Government committed $13.8 million over six years to establish this service, which delivers on our 2018 election commitment.