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