SIGN HERE: Mavis Gersbach signs her name to the petition to urge the NSW government to appoint more paramedics to Orange. 0314sgpetition1
NEWSAGENT Tony Jones and his wife Dot didn’t think twice about putting a petition in their shop calling on the NSW government to appoint more paramedics to the city.
With the memory of having to wait an hour-and-a-half to get an ambulance to an injured motorcyclist on their way home from work a year ago, the couple was among the first in Orange to put their hand up.
“We live out near Spring Hill and we came across a motorcyclist who had crashed,” Mr Jones said.
“We couldn’t move him because we thought he had neck and spine injuries and so we waited and it was an hour-and-a-half before an ambulance came.”
“I think it was even longer than that,” Mrs Jones said.
Lifelong Orange resident Mavis Gersbach, who signed the petition yesterday at the Joneses’ newsagency in Summer Street, said she was happy to support the campaign.
“When you think of all the new houses in Orange it is only logical,” she said.
Orange City Council has got behind the petition moved in council by Cr Glenn Taylor and has distributed it to all council-run facilities, including the library, art gallery, pool, and all childcare centres.
Cr Taylor said he urged Orange residents to keep up the momentum and sign the petition as soon as possible.
“We need to convince the government this issue isn’t about number crunching to save money - it is about saving lives,” Cr Taylor said.
“I know I’ve said this before but I can’t emphasis enough that one ambulance on duty in Orange for a city of 40,000 people with a second one on call just isn’t enough.”
He said the goal was to gather 10,000 signatures from Orange residents to have the issue raised in Parliament.