Red Ambulances

[Stretch]

Fire Crews To Do Paramedic Jobs

FIRE trucks will be known as "red ambulances" in a radical plan to have Queensland firefighters attend more medical emergencies.

The vehicles will be fitted with life-saving defibrillators and used as a first response while the crisis-hit Queensland Ambulance Service struggles to cope with soaring Code 1 calls.
"It is a crazy situation . . . we are not paramedics . . . people are going to die," a senior firefighter, who declined to be identified, warned yesterday.

"You don't send ambulances to put a fire out . . . you shouldn't send firefighters to deal with a life-threatening medical emergency."

Sources said yesterday that hundreds of defibrillators would be fitted to fire trucks around the state in 2008.

Fire Commissioner Lee Johnson, in a confidential memo to his assistant commissioners, seen by The Sunday Mail last week, confirmed defibrillator rumours.

Mr Johnson said the defibrillators would "enhance first aid capacity".

"The defibrillators are to be carried on appliances principally for the safety of our own staff but may be used at incidents for members of the public," he said in the memo.

But Mr Johnson yesterday denied the measure was imminent.

A spokesman said the Queensland Fire and Rescue Service had looked at the option but the plan was no further advanced than that.

United Firefighters Union state president Henry Lawrence said he had expressed the union's concerns to QFRS management.

Talks between the union and management had been suspended pending the ambulance audit ordered by Premier Anna Bligh.

An exclusive Sunday Mail report last weekend revealed an acute shortage of frontline firefighters had seen crew numbers drop to dangerous levels.

Senior officers feared lives would be lost as they did not have the personnel to cope with fire emergencies. "Now they want us to be first responders for the ambulance service," the firefighter said.

"We will be known as the red ambulances and deemed as emergency services workers when we attend medical jobs – so the QAS can improve their own response times."

Latest Emergency Services Department figures showed

the monthly average for ambulances arriving on the scene of life-threatening emergencies within 10 minutes had dropped to 60 per cent in Brisbane and on the Gold and Sunshine Coasts – well below the State Government benchmark of 68 per cent.

A Sunday Mail report in June detailed two cases in southeast Queensland where firefighters had been sent to medical dramas because ambulances were not available.

In both instances, the male patients died before paramedics could attend.

There were three similar cases involving heart attack victims in 2006.

The government at the time defended the use of the firefighters, saying it was "good practice" and was "about saving lives".

Opposition emergency services spokesman Ted Malone said it again raised questions about where the $450 million raised by the ambulance levy had been spent since it was introduced in 2003.

Mr Malone said the Government was trying to "cover up" ambulance response times and the lack of frontline staff and vehicles.

"The very fact that fire trucks are being sent to emergency medical calls and are being fitted with defibrillators proves the Minister (of Emergency Services, Neil Roberts) plans to dispatch more and more fire trucks to medical emergencies as first responders," Mr Malone said.

Mr Roberts said there were no "immediate plans" to install defibrillators on fire appliances and the union would be consulted "before any change to that position".

He disputed that fire service responses would be added to QAS statistics.

[Phil]

hi Mitchell i read this in the Newspaper the reason why they have thought of this is because the QAS is playing Catch-up and are recruiting from overseas and interstate. at present they have recruited a few groups that i am aware of. they are also looking for EMD's Emergency Medical Dispatchers these are communications officer new role name. for all those interested go to www.ambulance.qld.gov.au and i beleive it is under Recruitment.

[Stretch]

I understand the logic behind it especially in remote areas with auxilliary stations. When it does get introduced I'll just wait for the time when QFRS will cut the vehicle out, treat them and then transport them to hospital because there's no ambulances available.