Today’s question comes from Western Australia. I’m asked:
Can a non-registered paramedic, let’s call them a medic, attend to emergency calls with lights and sirens as well as driving in a marked van labelled ‘ambulance’?
I’m then provided with a link to a private emergency service provider but I won’t post that here as the identity is not important but it’s that which tells me this question is from WA.
Paramedics are registered under the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law. That scheme works via protection of title. It is an offence for anyone who is not a registered paramedic to call themselves a paramedic or to use any other title to suggest that they are a registered paramedic (Health Practitioner Regulation National Law (WA) s 113). This law says nothing about the road rules or ambulance services.
In Western Australia there is no ambulance service legislation. So, anyone can set up a private ambulance service. They cannot, on a public street, use lights and sirens or drive contrary to the road rules unless they have approval from the CEO of the Department of Transport (Road Traffic Code 2000 (WA) s 3 definition of ‘emergency vehicle’).
In short, yes a ‘non-registered paramedic, let’s call them a medic, [can, in Western Australia] attend to emergency calls with lights and sirens as well as driving in a marked van labelled ‘ambulance’’ provided they have been ‘duly authorised as an emergency vehicle for the purposes of these regulations, by the CEO’ of the Department of Transport.
Australian Emergency Law 
Clearly shows that the person who asked the question has some confusion about registration and could probably do with some fact checking.
Perhaps also they still have a dogma around non-jurisdictional ambulance services. But lets face it, SJAA in WA is also a “private ambulance service”who just happen to contract to the Government, and they also do the things that this question was about (except in SJAA’s case they call them volunteer ambulance officers). Lets call apples apples.
In WA many organisations, especially mining companies have vehicles clearly marked as ambulances, often with livery identical to St John other than respective logos, as often the vehicles are purchased 2nd hand.
Most of these vehicles retain red / blue lights and sirens and respond on public roads and also transport their patients directly to hospitals.
As a manager of a Private Emergency Service at a Mine in WA, I can confirm that the WA rules have tightened recently. All our Emergency Vehicles are now licenced as “Priority 2” vehicles which states that Red/ORANGE lights and sirens can be used however there is NO allowance for operating outside of the WA Road rules. It is simply used to warn other drivers of an emergency vehicle approaching and to do what they can to allow priority. The permissions for Red/Blues are being restricted to Govt based vehicles only. The drivers of any Emergency Vehicle must be qualified under an Aus RTO and hold a “Drive/Operate an Emergency Vehicle” qualification. Some Emergency vehicles in other Mines are still registered under the previous Priority 1 and maintain Red/Blues but that will gradually change as they come up for their 5 yearly licence application.
Using “Red/ORANGE lights and sirens … [with] NO allowance for operating outside of the WA Road rules… to warn other drivers of an emergency vehicle approaching and to do what they can to allow priority’ is simply asking for trouble. Either it’s an emergency vehicle or it is not. My advice to anyone would be if you are not an emergency vehicle for the purposes of the road rules do not pretend you are and do not use flashing warning lights or siren when travelling.
That’s concerning Michael as it was the Department of Transport that gave us those licences with the subsequent ruling of Priority 2. It was a definitive statement that we are working under.
I am going to look further into their parameters for the sake of my staff.