6 August 2009

ACT Ambulance given to St John Ambulance

| nanzan
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Yesterday, Simon Corbell’s office sent out a press release informing the community that the ACT Ambulance Service had given a used ambulance to St John Ambulance (ACT). I haven’t seen the story picked up anywhere, and I guess it got swamped by the bigger story of the new fire trucks being handed over to the ACT Rural Fire Service on the same day.

I was just a little interested in the contrast: both St John Ambulance and the Rural Fire Service are volunteer-based organisations, although with very different relationships to the Government; the RFS is part of the ESA, and St John Ambulance is not (perhaps it should be?). But the RFS gets seven (was it seven or five?) brand new fire tankers, and St John Ambulance gets one ACT Ambulance Service’s hand-me-down ambulance.

Reading the press release, I got the impression that this was the first time such a gift had been given to St John Ambulance in the ACT, or perhaps the first in a long time. Does anybody know any more about this…perhaps you have a photo of the ambulance that was handed-over? How has St John Ambulance been carrying out its duties before this, if it didn’t have such a vehicle, I wonder?

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Maybe nanzan is confused because in Western Australia, St John’s Ambulance is contracted to provide an emergency ambulance service.

In the ACT, that responsibility falls to the ACT Ambulance Service… which is a arm of Government. St John’s in the ACT only provide first aid services on a ‘hire fee’ basis to Sporting & other major Events. They do not provide emergency response.

The Rural Fire Service, uses volunteer labour, but its management is Government and hence why it is funded by the Government. Considering it provides an emergency response, I’d say there would be no argument for any alternative arrangements.

winning star4:27 pm 06 Aug 09

I don’t think it was picked up becuase it actually happened on Tuesday, when Stanhope was doing a homeless thing. So yeah, it was overshadowed.

The RFS got eight new tankers – part of a fleet replacement program.

It seems like a pretty simple equation to me, and one suspects that nanzan has some affiliation with St John Ambulance.

St John Ambulance provide a fairly basic service that supports services offered by the regular ambulance service.

The ACT RFS provides a front-line service with no substitute.

Move along, theres nothing to see here.

St John in ACT only provide first aid posts at sporting and community events, so the ‘ambulance’ they’ve been given will just be used for this and not for transporting patients. To date they’ve used pop-out caravan trailers, tents, station wagons, etc. to provide their first aid services from.

If they have someone that needs transporting or has serious health issues, they call ACTAS.

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