Nine experienced paramedics have joined Ambulance Tasmania from interstate and overseas, with most bound for the state’s north-west.
Several of the recruits said Tasmania’s landscape and lifestyle had helped draw them to the state.
Allison Boehm, who has worked as a paramedic since 2012, moved from Brisbane and will be based in Devonport.
She found the position on Seek and described the move as a “side step” into a role at the same level.
Ben Casey, a paramedic of three years from Sydney, will be based in the south, while Mirek Tresnak has relocated from the Czech Republic.
Health Minister Bridget Archer announced the new recruits at Ambulance Tasmania’s Cambridge base.
Six will be stationed in the north-west, two in the south and one in the north.
Archer said the intake brought the number of paramedics who had joined the service this year to 54.
Ambulance Tasmania chief executive Nicole Ashworth said the nine recruits had come from across Australia and overseas, including one Tasmanian returning home.
She said they had been assigned based on community demand and vacancies created by staff promotions or departures.
Ashworth said the experience they brought from other ambulance services would benefit the organisation.
“There’s ambulance services across the country and internationally that do things, in some instances, very similarly to what we do at Ambulance Tasmania and there’s also a wealth of different experiences and ways of working,” she said.
“It’s great to bring those different ways of working and that knowledge into our organisation.”
The recruits will spend about four weeks completing induction before beginning work in their regions.
Labor MP and shadow health minister Sarah Lovell welcomed the new paramedics but said the state government should do more to support locals hoping to join the service.
“It’s very difficult to get employment with Ambulance Tasmania once you’ve studied here in Tasmania and that’s really where our attention should be,” she said.
