WA Radio Scanner Users' Group

ST_DOC wrote:Now all sja ambulances dont have at least one paramedic on board at all times there are all vollie crews.....
I had a little incident with me being hit while i was riding my motorbike in freo and ummmmm serpentine vollies came.....Errrrrr i would of liked a para thanks....

That's a bit of a one-eyed view, considering in many areas the Vol Officers are all they have - and I'm pretty sure they are all very thankful for that!

You'll probably find the Serpentine crew had just dropped someone off.

ST_DOC wrote:Now all sja ambulances dont have at least one paramedic on board at all times there are all vollie crews.....
I had a little incident with me being hit while i was riding my motorbike in freo and ummmmm serpentine vollies came.....Errrrrr i would of liked a para thanks....

Having said that would you have rather waited a while longer, before a full time ambulance crew was available?? I know I'd have been happy having Vollies look after me. At least there's someone that's been trained past Snr. First Aid that's looking after me.

Well its a prity one eyed view when you dont know the full details of it mate. Hows about receiving the crappiest care ever. I was t boned by a 4x4 doing 70 plus and i received some severe injuries. Im a us trained emtParamedic fire fighter so i know what should and should not occur. Now i wont get into the details of it all but i was less than impressed by their level of care, understanding of trauma and medical complications arising from such. Now through freedom of information i gained a copy of my PCR which confirmed that i had been poorly treated. I could hardly read it due to the poor hand writing and spelling. Now to anwser your question yes i would of preferred to have waited for a Para crew. Long gone are the days where you grab a patient and shove them in the back and speed off to hospital. If you actually read into ambulance history and some of the studies they found that the ambulance ride sometimes caused more injuries than the actual event. Thats why SJA are following the lead of the rest of the world in having highly trained Paramedics, as pre hospital care counts in regards to the mortality and morbidity of patients.

Now this is not a dig at Vollies in general or SJA vollies and they do some great work. But the crew that attended me did not cut the mustard. Also within a metro area i would expect a para crew not vollie it is 2007 you know.

Well contact the Saint and make a complaint. If you are a US trained EMT/Paramedic, you will know that raising the issue with management and having it dealt with via training and maybe a review of operational guidelines is far better than slagging them off in an open environemnt.

Myself, as a medically trained person find it quite unprofessional that a ""collegue"" would act in such a manner...

BTW? are u EMT-B, EMT-A or EMT-P, and were u career or attached to a volunteer company??

I have emt-B emt-I emt-P and emt-p-critical care flight medic (fixed wing and rotor) and yes career with a municipal service then moved to municipal fire house.
I am very sorry you feel this way but i am understandably very angry about this situation. This has been raised with SJA hence PCR copies etc. I am not slagging anyone im voicing my opinion due to my personal experience which unfortunately was a bad one. As said in the previous post the guys do good work but there has to be bad apples any where you go. But being a metro area i would expect a Para crew is it to much to ask that a professional crew attend me. I know this state uses vollies due to the amount of area covered but in freo i would expect a para crew.
Back home i worked with volunteers and with the correct education and training they become a excellent member of any team.

If you had a problem go and complain if its being dealt with no reason to bring it up here and slag them off they do well with the training they get.

How long have you been out of the service for or are you working with a private provider atm in W.A ? Quals dont hold forever have you had them refreshed or done any training in W.A

They have channels for those complaints and besides i thought we were discussing fleet numbers and insignia.

Im not slagging voicing opinion here.
Yeah refresh every 12 months in the us and go back on the rigs over there. Na was in the mines now FESA FRS

doesnt matter where in the metro/country you are you will always getthe first avalible crew and i know most memebrs at serpy and they all do great work maybe cos you exceppt the best from you come from but think if it wasnt for that crew you may have been worse off

ST_DOC wrote:I have emt-B emt-I emt-P and emt-p-critical care flight medic (fixed wing and rotor) and yes career with a municipal service then moved to municipal fire house.
I am very sorry you feel this way but i am understandably very angry about this situation. This has been raised with SJA hence PCR copies etc. I am not slagging anyone im voicing my opinion due to my personal experience which unfortunately was a bad one. As said in the previous post the guys do good work but there has to be bad apples any where you go. But being a metro area i would expect a Para crew is it to much to ask that a professional crew attend me. I know this state uses vollies due to the amount of area covered but in freo i would expect a para crew.
Back home i worked with volunteers and with the correct education and training they become a excellent member of any team.

Slight pick-up here. Just 'coz they are volunteers, it does NOT mean they are not professionals. Best use 'career' and 'volunteer' to deliniate between the two..

munchkin1981 wrote:doesnt matter where in the metro/country you are you will always getthe first avalible crew and i know most memebrs at serpy and they all do great work maybe cos you exceppt the best from you come from but think if it wasnt for that crew you may have been worse off

I think ST_DOC has mentioned several times he's not slagging the vollie crews.

The point is in the metro area there shouldn't be two levels of service and a luck of the draw as to who shows up. In a country town everyone understands its people doing their best to help the community but thats not to say they wouldn't jump at the chance to have a 3yr trained paramedic rock up in the van.

Say for example you live in Cannington and are a diabetic, you could have a van that shows up and gives you some glucose gel in your gums and oxygen on the way to hospital or you could van that shows up, administers glucagon maybe some gel and can often leave you in the comfort of your own home after watching you eat some carbs, drink some juice etc saving you the hassle of being "baby sitted" at an ED for several hours.

The differences between the care you may or may not get could go on and on, and I would never say a volunteer isn't treating you to the best of their ability (I know plenty of vollies too, even some at serpy) the point is as I mentioned above there shouldn't be two levels of care in an emergency in the metro area.

As for the comment about the first available crew, the ambulance service will always be driven by response times and therfore yes it will always be the nearest van. Ask yourself this but, how many times have you heard Wundowie or Bullsbrook for example go racing off to a P1 on there way back to their station, most likely almost never. Why? because they know their usually only a couple of minutes closer then a paramedic crew and they volunteer because want to service their community and not "go fishing" on the way home.

Food for thought

If there's two levels of service should there be two bill levels also

Someone mentioned above that serpy maybe getting one paramedic is this true ? and why dont they do the same at two rocks, because i swear during the week they even operate because i hear merriwa n joondalup going there way for calls, even though its a "vollie" depot sja should still lay down minimum crewing if they cant man the depot paramedics should go straight in.

..............

Say for example you live in Cannington and are a diabetic, you could have a van that shows up and gives you some glucose gel in your gums and oxygen on the way to hospital or you could van that shows up, administers glucagon maybe some gel and can often leave you in the comfort of your own home after watching you eat some carbs, drink some juice etc saving you the hassle of being "baby sitted" at an ED for several hours.

if ur a diabetic and call for a ambulance you will always be taken to hsp not babysat at ur home when gel is admistered its straight to hsp

Serpy is to have 4 staff as of Jul 07 to meet its contract with the Health Dept. The issue at present is will it be a country or metro station, metro means no volunteers and requires 8 staff and country requires 4 staff working with volunteers as per Pinjarra and Mandurah.

Yanchep or "Two Rocks" is listed to have a permanent 24hr ambulance as of Jul 08, not sure if that means 4 or 8 staff though.

munchkin1981 wrote:if ur a diabetic and call for a ambulance you will always be taken to hsp not babysat at ur home when gel is admistered its straight to hsp

My post says "baby sat at hosp" not home, and YES most people don't require to go to an ED if they have had a glucagon injection. Its usually do the paperwork while they have something to eat which gives the paramedic ample time to make sure the person has recovered and is alert "62 : 82" But yes it would be "off to hosp" if only glucose gel was given (which is what the volunteers carry).

Most diabetics know that all that happens at ED is they "monitor" them and watch that their sugar levels have settled then refer them back to their own GP.

Hopefully that clears my previous post up