Private ambulance operators allegedly directed staff away from Eynesbury school bus crash | ABC News

it was the biggest Mass casually Victoria's experienced this year 45 children were on board the school bus when it collided with a truck at Amesbury leaving some with injuries so bad they had to have limbs amputated [Music] ambulance Victoria called for help from non-emergency patient transport a network of private ambulances contracted to do non-urgent work but operators were told at least two private Crews were unavailable

because they'd called in sick except they hadn't they were there that day they weren't sick they were on shift but they were told by their employer not to log in on the ambulance Victoria system and they were reassigned to do private work for their other contracts Iman Cruz had to come from much further away to help take injured children to hospital we need a strong patient

transport sector unfortunately it's failing the ABC has spoken to three workers who say this incident is indicative of what's happening in the sector every day with providers dropping ambulance Victoria shifts for private work which pays more and that's putting further strain on our emergency paramedics it ties up the system it ties up emergency paramedics and it prevents patients from being exited from the emergency department Dory

is the only state in Australia where non-emergency patient transport is run by private operators well I'm not particularly pleased with this sector and it's my view that those Services should come back in-house once contracts have run the government's already announced a review Into the troubled sector with a report due by the end of the year there are some opportunities for improvement to make sure that it

better supports us as an overall health sector the non-emergency provider declined to comment and referred the ABC to ambulance Victoria which said there was no shortage of non-emergency Crews on the day of the crash Bridget rollison ABC News