7 December 2010

Ambulance Service Must Try Harder

| johnboy
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The Auditor-General, Mrs Phu Tam, has cast her merciless eye across the ACT Ambulance Service and found much lacking:

    ACTAS has delivered a complex range of services against growing demand and limited capacity. There was significant scope for improvement in various aspects of ACTAS’ operation

Issues include:

    — Response times to emergency incidents have worsened in recent years and have not met targets set by government.

    — Clinical governance systems currently in place were not sufficiently robust to provide assurance of a quality service on patient care.

    — Ambulance data were not appropriately collected and analysed. In particular, modelling of ambulance data was not sufficiently developed to enable ACTAS to effectively target service delivery to the Canberra community and to strategically plan for ACTAS’ future operations.

    — Non-emergency response services (patient transfers) were not well coordinated and efficiently delivered.

    — There were deficiencies in ACTAS planning, documentation of policies and procedures, risk management and performance management and review.

The full report is available.

UPDATED: Simon Corbell has expressed his thrill at these findings, noting: The ACT has the second best ambulance response times in Australia.

When you consider that every other State or Territory has significant rural populations this is not such a great achievement.

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nanzan said :

Could the resources of St John Ambulance be used to alleviate some of the pressure on the ACT Ambulance Service? For instance, could St John Ambulance take over some of the routine transfer work, or the ambualnce attendance at public events?

In other states possibly, but unfortunately St John ACT doesn’t have the cars or staff to do it…

Could the resources of St John Ambulance be used to alleviate some of the pressure on the ACT Ambulance Service? For instance, could St John Ambulance take over some of the routine transfer work, or the ambualnce attendance at public events?

gun street girl5:44 pm 20 Jun 09

miz said :

Bonejac makes a good point – I wish those at the coalface would be treated more respectfully when they suggest fixes to ongoing problems. Goes for bus drivers too, in relation to timetable debacles.

Same goes for those who are working in the hospitals. Clearly, the Government isn’t particularly interested in common sense.

Bonejac makes a good point – I wish those at the coalface would be treated more respectfully when they suggest fixes to ongoing problems. Goes for bus drivers too, in relation to timetable debacles.

“Yes. We are all lousy drivers and we can’t even get out of the way of ambulances”

Spend a few hours in an emergency services vehicle.

Yes, most people are lousy drivers who can’t/won’t get out of the way (despite room a plenty)

You know the strange thing though……. almost all the recommendations in the Audit report have been suggested to ACTAS management by the staff on road for years now…. And now that the official paper work has backed them up the chief minister doesnt like the results. Strange world we live in really when a democratic country has a deranged despotic overlord like Stanhope having tantrums because reality doesnt coincide with his world view.

VYBerlinaV8_the_one_they_all_copy7:53 am 20 Jun 09

Yes. We are all lousy drivers and we can’t even get out of the way of ambulances. Unfortunately unlike you we can’t make our vehicles levitate or move into spaces that aren’t there. Most of us do our best to make room. This has fcuk all to do with this post.

You can change lanes if moving, pull onto the shoulder, or if stuck in a line of traffic stay still so the emergency vehicle can, if necessary, mount the kerb and drive around you. This sort of excuse making is typical of the piss poor driving attitudes you see in this town.

YapYapYap said :

Even if the targets are a little ambitious; 50% of emergency cases within 8 minutes, its been clear for some time that the service has been short of funding.

And bd84, be straight up and tell us which Lib you work for. After all when Roland from the Greens posted here, he did admit he was Roland from the Greens.

Anyone know what became of Roland fro the Greens?

I work for the Labor party, like everyone else in the Public Service.

VYBerlinaV8_the_one_they_all_copy said :

What about the idiots who fail to get out of the way when an emergency vehicle is behind them with lights and sirens on.

You beat me to it. So many people just don’t seem to understand the concept of ‘pull over’ or ‘get out of the way’ when there’s an emergency vehicle under lights coming up. I suspect it’s a symptom of the failure of many people to understand what controlling a car is really about.

Yes. We are all lousy drivers and we can’t even get out of the way of ambulances. Unfortunately unlike you we can’t make our vehicles levitate or move into spaces that aren’t there. Most of us do our best to make room. This has fcuk all to do with this post.

AG Canberra said :

Corbell’s comment is much the same as saying “because no one can get it right we don’t need to either”. This comparison with other states is a bit of a joke.

We demand an ambulance turn up quickly. We demand that it has the appropriately trained staff to assist the injured person. We demand that those ambo’s havent been working for 20 days straight or doing 20 hour shifts.

If we were keen to experience what happens in other states we’d move there.

Corbell is a dumbo.

I think that is a given.

Again, if there were more positions available in the ambulance service, and a larger fleet, we would have the best service in the country. we don’t, and we aren’t meeting the “targets” set. The amount of paramedics that have to work crazy hours can only lead to a problem when they have several accidents at the same time or one large accident / incident. If there aren’t the necessary down times for the paramedics, mistakes could be made.

Corbell’s comment is much the same as saying “because no one can get it right we don’t need to either”. This comparison with other states is a bit of a joke.

We demand an ambulance turn up quickly. We demand that it has the appropriately trained staff to assist the injured person. We demand that those ambo’s havent been working for 20 days straight or doing 20 hour shifts.

If we were keen to experience what happens in other states we’d move there.

Corbell is a dumbo.

VYBerlinaV8_the_one_they_all_copy said :

What about the idiots who fail to get out of the way when an emergency vehicle is behind them with lights and sirens on.

You beat me to it. So many people just don’t seem to understand the concept of ‘pull over’ or ‘get out of the way’ when there’s an emergency vehicle under lights coming up. I suspect it’s a symptom of the failure of many people to understand what controlling a car is really about.

i understand what your saying there and i agree if your actually moving in a car, you can switch lanes. If you can move, move if you cant then dont try.

I was behind two cars stopped at the lights on northbourne and an ambulance came speeding up from behind us. the first car tried to run a red stopped in the middle of the intersection, changed his/her mind, reversed, and the second car tried reversing to move aside but then there was more cars behind me. if you cant move dont try cause the amublance/fire/police cars have the tyres and the driving skills to go around you and up curbs. I do think the cars had good intentions but really were making to worse.

VYBerlinaV8_the_one_they_all_copy1:37 pm 19 Jun 09

What about the idiots who fail to get out of the way when an emergency vehicle is behind them with lights and sirens on.

You beat me to it. So many people just don’t seem to understand the concept of ‘pull over’ or ‘get out of the way’ when there’s an emergency vehicle under lights coming up. I suspect it’s a symptom of the failure of many people to understand what controlling a car is really about.

maybe i need to read my post first?

Whatsup said :

Mr Waffle said :

Regarding the response times, maybe it has something to do with the thousands of extra cars clogging up the main roads of Canberra over the last few years? Peak hour is getting longer and longer, which would surely slow them down…

What about the idiots who fail to get out of the way when an emergency vehicle is behind them with lights and sirens on.

maybe we need emergebcy vehicle lanes instead of cycle lanes?

Mr Waffle said :

Regarding the response times, maybe it has something to do with the thousands of extra cars clogging up the main roads of Canberra over the last few years? Peak hour is getting longer and longer, which would surely slow them down…

What about the idiots who fail to get out of the way when an emergency vehicle is behind them with lights and sirens on.

My mother has had a few strokes and related seizures over the years, and the ambo crews from Dickson have been absolutely amazing.

Regarding the response times, maybe it has something to do with the thousands of extra cars clogging up the main roads of Canberra over the last few years? Peak hour is getting longer and longer, which would surely slow them down…

Even if the targets are a little ambitious; 50% of emergency cases within 8 minutes, its been clear for some time that the service has been short of funding.

And bd84, be straight up and tell us which Lib you work for. After all when Roland from the Greens posted here, he did admit he was Roland from the Greens.

Anyone know what became of Roland fro the Greens?

Hey Jb, the auditor general’s name is Tu Pham not Phu Tam.

I vote we convert the funding for roadside art into funding for essential services like the ambos. I know which I’d rather have.

The government are excellent at influencing figures to suit their own purpose. It looks as though the response times make up a very small part of the report, at probably not was worrying as things like the ambulance service having to send out normal paramedics to jobs which required an intensive care paramedic, 22 full shifts where they had to shut ambulance stations because of a lack of staff, having to respond to some emergencies with a one person car crew in the place of a full ambulance. No doubt the ambos do the best job possible, it’s just the government’s shortfall in funding letting them down.

They run on minimal staff numbers and cost cut, then want to evaluate their attendance times ?? Go figure !!

Ms. Tam wouldn’t know her ass from her elbow. ACTAS do a brilliant job with pathetic resourcing.

e.g.

“Non-emergency response services (patient transfers) were not well coordinated and efficiently delivered. “

WTF are they being transported in operational ambulances for?

Got to agree peter – I was in an MVA in february and the ambos where there in less than 5 minutes.

8 mins or less for type 1 emergencies? every time we have needed an ambo, one has been on the scene in light speed. considering that there would have to be more ambulances and paramedics on the road to meet with the act govt’s requirements, what does the health minister have to say, I wonder?

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