Presented by Robert Clark MP		www.robertclark.net

Ambulance studies centre for Frankston

The Victorian Government will provide $3 million to build a Monash University Centre for Ambulance and Paramedic Studies at the University’s Peninsula campus at Frankston, in a new approach to ambulance education and training.

The Centre will be built in time for the 2000 academic year.

A Ministerial taskforce set up to review options for ambulance education and training, made three key recommendations:

• That education be mainstreamed to a single agency.
• That base-level ambulance paramedic training be provided on a pre-employment model.
• That a strong preference be given to a formal partnership with a faculty of medicine.

The shift to pre-employment training brings ambulance education into line with contemporary education practice for nearly all other industries.

Monash University will provide education and training services under a comprehensive, performance-based agreement with the Department of Human Services for a five-year term with an option for another five years.

Dr Frank Archer has been appointed by Monash University as the centre’s first director.

(News Release, Office of the Minister for Health, April 22, 1999)