Income Protection and Insurance for Special Rescue Paramedics

A widow of a special rescue paramedic killed in the line of work while suspended from a helicopter is one of a number of witnesses in a compaign launched in the industrial courts in the hope of achieving parity for special rescue paramedics with other workers on a helicopter in having income protection and life insurance as part of their working conditions.

Michael Wilson, a special rescue paramedic, was 42 when he died after slamming into a cliff wall at Carrington Falls near Wollongong while suspended from a helicopter. He left a wife and three children behind. A safety investigation into the accident is due to report its findings on Thursday.

His wife and the NSW Health Services Union are separately lobbying the NSW government to ensure that other families are not left in a financially difficult position after a similar death. The union says that while life insurance and income protection is readily available to paramedics, it is either not offered by some insurance companies or prohibitively expensive for special rescue paramedics such as Mr Wilson, whose work involved being suspended from a helicopter.

A spokesman for the NSW Ambulance Service said paramedics had access to a death and disability scheme similar to schemes for police and fire officers under the Workers Compensation (Bush Fire, Emergency and Rescue Services) Act 1987 (NSW).

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