Australia’s government and state and territory health authorities are intensifying efforts to resolve a persistent shortage of personnel in the nation’s emergency medical services (EMS), with long-term workforce expansion strategies under development to ease pressure on ambulance response times and emergency departments.

The EMS workforce, comprising paramedics and allied pre-hospital professionals, has faced ongoing recruitment and retention difficulties that have contributed to extended waiting times for ambulance services and increased strain on emergency care systems.

The shortage of trained EMS personnel has been highlighted alongside broader health workforce capacity challenges, particularly in regional, rural and remote areas where demand outstrips available staff and emergency departments operate at high capacity.

Health sector reporting shows that patient transfer delays at overloaded emergency departments — often referred to as ambulance “ramping” — have contributed to extended ambulance wait times and reduced availability of crews for subsequent call-outs, amplifying operational stress on existing personnel.

Government and EMS bodies are pursuing multiple measures to bolster workforce numbers over the coming years.

These include expanded paramedic recruitment initiatives in states such as New South Wales, which recently welcomed new cohorts of paramedic interns and recruits to strengthen frontline services, and longstanding commitments to add hundreds of additional paramedics across regional and rural districts.

Training pipelines are also being strengthened through enhanced university graduate pathways and targeted workforce planning research, which is informing future staffing projections and recruitment campaigns.

At the federal level, attention to long-range workforce development is reflected in broader health policy discussions that emphasise the need for sustainable staffing models, enhanced professional development, and integrated multidisciplinary emergency care teams.

Professional bodies representing paramedics and emergency medicine clinicians have advocated for coordinated, evidence-based workforce strategies that improve retention through better working conditions, flexible rostering and support for careers in underserved regions.

While EMS staffing pressures cannot be resolved immediately, authorities and healthcare stakeholders express confidence that sustained investment and strategic planning over the next several years can gradually strengthen the EMS workforce.

The focus remains on expanding recruitment, improving retention and ensuring the emergency care system has the skilled personnel necessary to meet Australia’s growing demand for timely, high-quality pre-hospital care.