Riverina paramedics Liam Ward, David Mecham join Health Services Union campaign for better pay

Launched on Friday by the Health Sector Union (HSU), the highly visible protests have already seen phrases like 'support your paramedics, Perrottet doesn't care' and 'paramedics are highly trained technicians' written on the sides of ambulances.

Leeton HSU member and paramedic Liam Ward said the workforce had been receiving additional training and extra responsibilities for years, with no corresponding pay increases.

"As paramedics in a small country town you think 'yep, I'm going to do that [training] because it's better for my community'," he said.

"They want to call us paramedics and tell us that we're professionals, and they just don't want to pay for us, so we've had enough."

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As a result, many paramedics moved to work in other states with higher pay rates.

"The way the rosters are going and the way that paramedics are leaving, you won't have anybody in your community when someone unfortunately has a heart attack," Mr Ward said.

"You need someone that's going to be able to do effective CPR, so we'll go out in the community, take some mannequins with us and we'll teach people how to do it properly.

Griffith HSU delegate David Mecham said in his role as an intensive care paramedic, he could more complex procedures like chest decompressions, and intubations.

Paramedics now also have authority to treat patients with less immediate issues at home, rather than take them to a hospital. The only other health professionals with this decision making power are doctors.

Mr Mecham said lower grade paramedics were slowly learning these skills as well, but were not receiving pay increases to reflect their abilities.

"The majority of the public don't realise what paramedics can actually do," he said.

"That is a huge responsibility because if we make a mistake, we've then got to explain ourselves in a court of law. To do that for $38 an hour, it's not really fair."

HSU NSW secretary Gerard Hayes said the union was calling for pay parity and for all paramedics to be able to use their skills.

He said paramedics in NSW received 30 per cent less pay than paramedics in other states. They also have the highest injury rate.

"The truth is paramedics are trained to also do far more than they are currently allowed to perform," Mr Hayes said.

"If we scrapped archaic work practices and let them use their full range of knowledge and skills, NSW would reap extraordinary benefits. But we need a pay scale that reflect this."

A NSW Health spokesperson said they continued to engage in discussions with the HSU regarding the proposals for the future paramedic workforce.

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