Hundreds of Victorian ambulance paramedics have declined to be vaccinated for COVID-19, reinforcing calls for mandatory vaccination of all frontline healthcare workers in the state.
Internal Ambulance Victoria figures obtained by the ABC show that 256 “on-road clinical staff” from Ambulance Victoria have declined to be vaccinated, 4.6 per cent of the total number of paramedics.
The Australian Medical Association has called for compulsory vaccination of all frontline medical staff, and its president told the ABC those who did not wish to be vaccinated should consider leaving their profession.
However, the ambulance union has cautioned against reading too much into the figures and argued against mandatory vaccination of paramedics.
The revelation also came as the ambulance union complained that paramedics were being sent to the homes of COVID-19 patients without being warned they were entering an exposure site.