Victoria University [VU] would host an Australian-first Centre for Paramedicine under a re-elected Labor government.
In an announcement on Friday, November 18, Labor announced a $10 million investment in delivering the centre, which would focus on training the next generation of paramedics and providing advanced teaching methods, with the capacity to train about 1500 paramedic students each year.
VU has been providing one of Australasia’s largest undergraduate programs in paramedicine, with more than 800 current students.
Labor also announced that if they won the state election on Saturday, November 26, they would commit $16 million to add an additional 40 Mobile Intensive Care Ambulance [MICA] paramedics across the state.
Premier Daniel Andrews said the commitments would aim to support the state’s paramedics moving forward.
“Labor is doing what matters – standing shoulder to shoulder with our hard-working ambos and delivering the vital investments that save lives,” he said.
“We’ve listened to our paramedics, who have told us we need to work in partnership with them to deliver nuanced and targeted approaches to patient care – and we’re doing exactly that.”