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Speaker 1: Saint John will they have continued to experience a really

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Speaker 1: high level of demand over the Easter weekend. They had

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Speaker 1: prepared for that demand with additional cruise rosted on as

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Speaker 1: part of their surge planning. But joining us live on

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Speaker 1: the line to tell us a little bit more about

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Speaker 1: just how busy it gosh is, Saint John Ambulance Director

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Speaker 1: of Ambulance Services, Craig Garaway, Good morning.

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Speaker 2: Craig, Good morning, Katie.

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Speaker 1: Made it sounds like you guys had another massive weekend

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Speaker 1: experiencing a is it called a code white on Friday.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, So this happened Friday morning at about one am,

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Speaker 2: just before one am, and yet was what we call

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Speaker 2: an op CAP white. Effectively, it's a total critical system

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Speaker 2: failure or pressure so much pressure on the system it's

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Speaker 2: just failing. And we actually had another four instance and

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Speaker 2: over the weekend we're in OKAP red, which is periods

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Speaker 2: of time where the demand just continually exceeds the capacity

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Speaker 2: to meet that demand.

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Speaker 1: You poor buggers, I mean that must be bloody tough.

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Speaker 1: Going to put it mildly, talk me through because I

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Speaker 1: know that from the information that Saint John have given

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Speaker 1: us this morning that there has definitely been you know,

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Speaker 1: some additional cruise rostered on to try and and be

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Speaker 1: prepared for what you knew was going to be a

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Speaker 1: busy weekend, but sort of talk us through just how

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Speaker 1: busy it got.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, look, it got to the point and as you said,

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Speaker 2: we did put the additional resources on to try and

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Speaker 2: support our normal rosted crews. And you know where it

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Speaker 2: gets really difficult is, you know, you've got people waiting

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Speaker 2: six and a half hours for an ambulance, you know,

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Speaker 2: life life threatening cases, people are waiting up to an

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Speaker 2: hour and a half, So, you know, it just impacts

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Speaker 2: on the community. Obviously, people get very frustrated and angry

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Speaker 2: with us. Our emergency call takers in our community patient

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Speaker 2: center obviously cop it, and we continually bring back our

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Speaker 2: patients to get updates to make sure they're okay and

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Speaker 2: try and keep them up to date with where the

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Speaker 2: ambulance is. But you know, obviously people become very frustrated,

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Speaker 2: so they copy it, and then our paramedics are being

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Speaker 2: flogged on the road at the same time trying to

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Speaker 2: keep up with that workload, so that obviously impacts on

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Speaker 2: them from a fatigue perspective, and obviously the patients that

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Speaker 2: they get to are are really annoyed with them, and

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Speaker 2: it's our organizations reputation that's really suffering. And to make

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Speaker 2: it worse, on that morning as well, you know, one

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Speaker 2: of the extra crews we bought in Katie, one of

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Speaker 2: the females there was you know, verbally assaulted and threatened

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Speaker 2: sexually by one of our patients and she just decided,

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Speaker 2: you know, about midnight she had enough and it was

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Speaker 2: time to go home. So you know, that's just one example,

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Speaker 2: but you know multiple examples where our crews were just

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Speaker 2: threatened over the weekend. So look, it's a whole huge

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Speaker 2: system problem that we're experiencing and our people are experiencing,

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Speaker 2: and it's our reputation at the moment that's really copying it.

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Speaker 1: That's disgusting that she had to go through that, and unfortunately,

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Speaker 1: you know we hear that time and time again. It's

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Speaker 1: verbal abuse, it's physical abuse. You know, your paramedics are

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Speaker 1: having to deal with all sorts of disgusting behavior and

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Speaker 1: it's not acceptable.

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Speaker 2: You know.

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Speaker 1: But I know that you mentioned there that you know

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Speaker 1: for you guys reputationally, you know, you feel as though

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Speaker 1: it's having an impact, but do you know what I

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Speaker 1: reckon Craig as upset and frustrated as people feel. You know,

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Speaker 1: it's really important to point out that Saint John are

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Speaker 1: doing the absolute best that they can under what are

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Speaker 1: quite crippling circumstances at the moment.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. Look, we've obviously been running the service right around

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Speaker 2: a Nordon territory since Cyclone Tracy, so it's back in

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Speaker 2: nineteen seventy four, and you know, we are doing the

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Speaker 2: best we can with the resources that we are given

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Speaker 2: and the funding we are given. And that's obviously we're

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Speaker 2: working really hard with the Northern Territory government to build

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Speaker 2: partner ships there to address you know, many many years

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Speaker 2: of underfunding and trying to get ourselves back to where

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Speaker 2: we need to be today and then to try and

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Speaker 2: meet the ongoing demand. So it's very complex issue. But

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Speaker 2: you know, we are working really hard with the Northern

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Speaker 2: Territory Government and I thank them for the hard work

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Speaker 2: they're trying to do in the background to help us out.

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Speaker 1: Craig, over the weekend, talk us through, you know, some

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Speaker 1: of the situations that you were called out to. I

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Speaker 1: might start with Friday. We know that Friday was an

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Speaker 1: incredibly busy day by the sounds of things, But there

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Speaker 1: were a few sort of fairly serious incidents that paramedics

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Speaker 1: had to head out to, weren't there.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, look, excuse me, you know, nine thirty I've just

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Speaker 2: pulled a couple of different ones out I suppose from

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Speaker 2: over the weekend. But nine thirty on Friday morning in Sicola,

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Speaker 2: we had a forty five year old male. It's quite

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Speaker 2: a serious head injury, and I believe there was a

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Speaker 2: concrete pumping machine of some sort and a hose clamp

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Speaker 2: has exploded and that has impacted on that male. You know.

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Speaker 2: Followed straight on later on that night actually around ten

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Speaker 2: to fifteen and Bagott Road near the Bagott Community entrance,

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Speaker 2: there at thirty five year old a female with serious

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Speaker 2: head injuries as a result of being hit by a car.

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Speaker 2: I'm not sure whether she fell from the car all

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Speaker 2: was hit by the car. Obviously police will be investigating that,

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Speaker 2: you know. I think I said. We had about eight

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Speaker 2: car crashes over and motorbike crashes over the weekend. About

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Speaker 2: eight or nine people transport the hospital. Unfortunately. One of

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Speaker 2: the more serious ones in Catherine on Saturday at ten

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Speaker 2: pm was a car colliding with a tree and unfortunately

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Speaker 2: a young male there are deceased on scene. Obviously Catherine

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Speaker 2: really been suffering it with the floods over the last

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Speaker 2: month or so, and you know, a young life lost

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Speaker 2: in the community over Easter just you know, doesn't help

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Speaker 2: things there. Yeah, So just a lot of those sort

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Speaker 2: of things happening.

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Speaker 1: And what kind of impact then is that having four crews,

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Speaker 1: Like are we talking you know, when you've when you've

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Speaker 1: got a situation where you go into that op cap

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Speaker 1: white on Friday morning. Is it as a result of,

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Speaker 1: you know, of the car crashes, Is it as a

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Speaker 1: result of anything in particular that is seeing a real

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Speaker 1: surge or is it just sort of that there are

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Speaker 1: so many people that are needing Saint John at that

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Speaker 1: particular point.

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Speaker 2: I think, yes, it's a lot of people need Sin

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Speaker 2: John at that point. But I feel that for many

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Speaker 2: years we've been sort of saying gently in the background

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Speaker 2: that we've got a problem and their workload is increasing.

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Speaker 2: But St. John, you know, we're that type of organization.

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Speaker 2: We're just there to try and support the community. We've

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Speaker 2: probably been absorbing it, but we've got to the point

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Speaker 2: where we can't absorb it any longer. And it's impacting

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Speaker 2: on patient outcomes. So it impacts on our staff because

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Speaker 2: we can't give them a break. Twelve hours NonStop on

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Speaker 2: the road is really taxing on our paramedics and wears

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Speaker 2: them out, and then they don't want to come back

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Speaker 2: to work the next day. They get assaulted, so they

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Speaker 2: don't want to come back to work the next day.

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Speaker 2: And then you've got the hospital system, Cody, which we

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Speaker 2: all talk about, you know, we get stuck there. So

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Speaker 2: it's not just one thing that it's a whole lot

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Speaker 2: of things that add up that some of them are

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Speaker 2: in our control, a lot of them are out of

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Speaker 2: our control. Yeah, and that's that's what where we end

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Speaker 2: up today.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, Craig, you and I have spoken on so

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Speaker 1: many occasions on a Monday morning over.

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Speaker 2: The years and going on for years, and.

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Speaker 1: You know, and we've talked about, you know, the terrible

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Speaker 1: incidents that you guys get called out to. We've talked

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Speaker 1: about the terrible assaults that happen to our paramedics. We've

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Speaker 1: talked about the shitty phone calls that you guys receive,

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Speaker 1: you know, the situation where people are sometimes calling when

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Speaker 1: they really don't need to be calling. Saint John they

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Speaker 1: need to be fronting up to a GP or you know,

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Speaker 1: or doing something else. But there are so many different

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Speaker 1: factors at play here. But you know, we also, like

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Speaker 1: we've talked about the impact that this has on our paramedics,

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Speaker 1: Like how tough is it for you guys, for you

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Speaker 1: frontline workers at the moment when you know, you look

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Speaker 1: at all these different pressure points and you know, every day,

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Speaker 1: the paramedics, the call takers, everybody is still turning up

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Speaker 1: to work and they're doing the best that they can

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Speaker 1: under what to be really trying times. If you're receiving

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Speaker 1: a call saying that somebody is in a life threatening

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Speaker 1: situation and you're not able to get out there as

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Speaker 1: fast as you want to, and you know that you

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Speaker 1: need to.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, look, I think the paramedics and the emergency call

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Speaker 2: takers and dispatches along with our volunteers. We had volunteers

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Speaker 2: out last weekend working on the road helping our support,

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Speaker 2: supporting them. You know that they're all our people are amazing.

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Speaker 2: They come to work every day under try and condition,

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Speaker 2: and you know, I take my hat off to them

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Speaker 2: every day they keep coming back for more. You know,

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Speaker 2: it gets to some people and they say enough enough,

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Speaker 2: it's time to head home into state, you know, and

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Speaker 2: our attrition rate is high. But you know, for all

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Speaker 2: those things you just said and I've said, you know,

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Speaker 2: it's most people can come to work every day if

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Speaker 2: that's what they were coming to work to deal with.

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Speaker 2: So I'm so thankful for our people and all our

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Speaker 2: support stuff in the background that support them. And there's

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Speaker 2: so many of them CADID. It's not just paramedics in

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Speaker 2: an ambulance driving around there. We've got psychologists working for us,

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Speaker 2: you know, We've got work health safety people work for us,

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Speaker 2: We've got fleet stuff. It's a huge, you know, commitment

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Speaker 2: to meet the demand of what's going on a day

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Speaker 2: to day basis.

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Speaker 1: Look, I take my hat off to you guys. You

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Speaker 1: do an incredible job, but I know it would be

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Speaker 1: bloody hard work to go out there every day, and

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Speaker 1: particularly when you've got a situation, even over the weekend,

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Speaker 1: to hear that that female you know, paramedic has then

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Speaker 1: got somebody threatening violence and threatening sexual assault. Like it's

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Speaker 1: just disgusting behavior. And as I say, take my hat

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Speaker 1: off to you guys getting out there trying to help

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Speaker 1: people every single day, despite you know, some of the

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Speaker 1: difficulties that you're facing.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, Katie, look, we've got to thank you and a

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Speaker 2: lot of the other media too for getting our voice

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Speaker 2: out there. Our people do appreciate it when they hear

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Speaker 2: you talking and supporting us out there, and the other

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Speaker 2: media outlets also supporting. And one thing that really does

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Speaker 2: make a difference. You know, this happened to me last

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Speaker 2: Thursday at Catherine the shopping center. People just walking past

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Speaker 2: from saying thank you really makes a huge difference to

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Speaker 2: a paramedic or a police officer or you know, all

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Speaker 2: frontline workers. It's not just ask for the copying it.

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Speaker 2: Everyone's struggling. So if you see a paramedic or a

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Speaker 2: frontline worker, please just say thanks.

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Speaker 1: Well, Craig Garaway, thank you, thank you for your time,

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Speaker 1: thank you for the work that you do, and we

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Speaker 1: will talk to you again next week.

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Speaker 2: Thanks Katie, you have a great week for you too,