Ambulance wait times on the rise

FIRST ON 7: Paramedics are warning of a blow-out in ambulance response times, with emergency patients waiting up to 15 per cent longer.

The Australian Paramedics Association is blaming outer Sydney's rapid growth, a boom that hasn't been matched by ambulance facilities.

They say its members are frustrated, and rapid growth in the southwest, northwest, and Central Coast is making ambulance work increasingly difficult.

"If you look at problems with ambulance at the moment, it's at breaking point purely because of lack of resources," Association President Wayne Flint said.

"The city has been expanding over the years, particularly on the Central Coast, and over the last 10 to 15 years we haven't seen many new stations."

Response times across the state have risen 15 per cent in six years.

It used to take about 9.5 minutes for an ambulance to get to you, now it's likely to take almost 11 minutes, but response times are quicker in most metropolitan areas.

The Paramedics Association blames under-investment by successive governments.

"We're talking about people's lives, to a lot of people they might be just statistics, but to paramedics, they're affected by the outcomes," Wayne Flint said.

While the Liberal State Government says there are signs of improvement since they took power.

The annual budget for ambulances has increased by $15 million, and $25 million will be spent on new ambulance stations.

"Look it's a battle, I make no bones about that, but I would expect it to improve with our reforms," Health Minister Jillian Skinner said.

Next week the Paramedics Association will fight another battle, back in court in a bid to break away from the Health Services Union.