Robyn Ironside
The Courier Mail
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All Rights Reserved
QUEENSLAND, U.K. — Despite being used to driving on the opposite side of the road in Canada, advanced care paramedic Jeff Ofield thinks he would be perfect to drive ambulances in Queensland.
“I can just flick on the lights and people will get out of my way,” Mr Ofield laughed, after becoming one of 29 new overseas and interstate recruits inducted into the Queensland Ambulance Service.
The group is the single biggest intake of international recruits to the QAS, and follows an intensive recruitment campaign in the United Kingdom.
Emergency Services Minister Neil Roberts said the State Government also would target paramedics in South Africa, Germany, Poland and Canada to meet a budget commitment for 250 extra ambulance officers.
“Our first priority is to recruit within Queensland and Australia but because there’s not a pool of experienced officers currently available here we’ve needed to look internationally,” Mr Roberts said.
He said applicants were subject to comprehensive screening and criminal history checks.
Mr Ofield has been posted to Buderim, on the Sunshine Coast, where he will soon be joined by his paramedic wife and three-year-old daughter.
Queensland Ambulance Union secretary Steve Crow said members welcomed the international recruits to help address the “severe shortage” of qualified paramedics available in Australia.
“This quality of people can only benefit Queensland patients in my view,” he said.