aussieemt1980
Forum Lieutenant
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Here in NSW (and a standard around Australia), only the state ambulance service is permitted to do emergency transports. There is some agreements in place with the State Emergency Service (Rescue) and fire units around the state that act as "community first responders" but they are not permitted to transport. It helps prevent these problems, and the CFRs are with the patient in some cases for some time due to remote areas.
No the police should not have transported in the first place. It is not the domain of the police services to transport medical patients (unless of course the patient is under arrest, and generally the police sit in the back of the bus with the patient).
This should be looked at very carefully and some sort of procedure and policy developed from an administrative level - obviously there is no procedural policy in place. 7 minutes is an excellent response time - i have waited up to 1 1/2 to 2 hours for a road ambulance to arrive for patients, and once spent 45 minutes with an MI patient awaiting a transport unit. Mind you, this is remote area (although one of the 1 hour responses was from a station 15 minutes away - they got lost).
For a point of reference - I was once sitting at a local hospital when a fire truck bought in one of their own that had fractured their arm - transported under lights and sirens to hospital from the fire scene. While they were waiting to get their mate fixed, the driver and team leader got their bums kicked for not calling the ambulance.
No the police should not have transported in the first place. It is not the domain of the police services to transport medical patients (unless of course the patient is under arrest, and generally the police sit in the back of the bus with the patient).
This should be looked at very carefully and some sort of procedure and policy developed from an administrative level - obviously there is no procedural policy in place. 7 minutes is an excellent response time - i have waited up to 1 1/2 to 2 hours for a road ambulance to arrive for patients, and once spent 45 minutes with an MI patient awaiting a transport unit. Mind you, this is remote area (although one of the 1 hour responses was from a station 15 minutes away - they got lost).
For a point of reference - I was once sitting at a local hospital when a fire truck bought in one of their own that had fractured their arm - transported under lights and sirens to hospital from the fire scene. While they were waiting to get their mate fixed, the driver and team leader got their bums kicked for not calling the ambulance.