The Australian Paramedics Association (NSW) president Chris Kastelan said "every minute counts" in an emergency, but across the state, median response times had increased by three minutes in the past four years.

"The government needs to step up, listen to frontline workers, and invest in better outcomes," he said.

"We urgently need another 1500 paramedics."

Mr Kastelan said new data revealed in the Bureau of Health Information's latest Healthcare Quarterly showed that NSW Ambulance was "under-performing" and that it was "falling further behind with every quarter".

The report showed that across NSW, median response times for the highest priority "P1A" cases had risen to 8.8 minutes, which Mr Kastelan says is "their slowest on record" in the October-December quarter.

In Newcastle, median response times for P1A incidents have risen from seven to nine minutes in the past four years, while emergency "Priority 1" (P1) responses have risen from 10 to 13 minutes. That rise over four years is echoed across the Hunter. But demand for ambulance services has also increased over those four years.

In Lake Macquarie West, median response times for P1A cases rose to nine minutes, increased from 14 to 17 minutes for P1, and from 21 to 29 minutes for "urgent" Priority 2 (P2) incidents over four years. The median response for P1A cases in Port Stephens rose to 10 minutes from seven, and from 14 to 17 minutes for P1.

In some areas of the Hunter, less than a third of P1 incidents received an ambulance within the clinically recommended benchmark times. Between October and December, 2021, 31.7 per cent of incidents in Port Stephens were attended within the recommended time frames.

It was a little higher in Newcastle, with the percentage of P1 calls receiving a response on time dropping 6.4 percentage points to 51.2 when compared to the year prior.

In addition to more staff, the paramedics union is demanding better pay to keep paramedics in the job, plus an investment in specialist paramedics who can treat patients at home to reduce strain on the healthcare system.

The union's next day of action is planned for Monday, March 21, when paramedics will "refuse" to undertake staff movements - moving away from rostered stations once on shift - for 24 hours.

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