Rant warning.
Right, Its been all over the news in the last few days. Its now very public knowledge what all of us know already - the service is falling over, slowly. Response times have blown out and are reported to be at 20 mins for the 90th percentile of Code 1 cases. That means on average if you ring an ambulance on a busy night here you have about 90% chance of waiting 20 mins for it. You may be one of the lucky ones who gets an ambulance sooner than that - buy hey if you are ringing an ambulance - in theory, luck is not currently on your side. However you may also be one of the poor buggers who wait even longer than that!
An ambulance Whistleblower got mighty crapped off by the events of the last couple of weeks (as have we all) and went to the media:
http://tinyurl.com/63rgl2c
http://tinyurl.com/6l65h5r
This got the ball rolling and had the Ambulance Service spin coming out with a response that basically blamed:
1. the hospitals for holding us up (Which they do a lot - but proper funding will address this)
2. those lazy paramedics for using their sick leave.
There was no mention of the service itself having an undeniable role in eroding the standard of ambulance coverage through neglect and mis-management. The reason paramedics have sick leave available to them is because they are exposed to a lot of sick people - we have stressed immune systems. We also work shift work, which also makes you more susceptible to illness. We don't eat at regular times and struggle to maintain regular fitness regimes. We deal with an unsupportive management, a low morale work environment and ever increasing workload with ever decreasing conditions.
We are now one of the busiest ambulance services in the country and among the lowest paid. Thank you Mr Whistleblower for your efforts. Lets hope for the staff and the public, something comes of this.
6 comments:
G'day. I am a high school student. I read your article and I agree with the points you raise. Being a paramedic especially these days in Victoria must get pretty stressful and tiring but hey I am just a civilian so I probably don't know what it's actually like for you fellas. I happily remember having an Ambulance Victoria station across the street before they moved a few years ago down the road. Still see them go by now and then.
Like most Victorians I do respect how hard you paramedics work. It's probably tough like most jobs but at least it is rewarding to help people.
Just thought I'd mention I become interested in taking pictures of emergency vehicles like police and ambulances. I'll probably move onto something else soon since I change hobbies a lot. Just last week I was really into riding buses in my spare time and taking pictures of buses. Anyway someone at Ambulance Vic HQ said during the Christmas-New Year break they'll see if they can organise for me to take pictures of an Ambulance at a local station.
I just wanted to ask you since your a paramedic and work long hours with little rest/breaks if something is organized do you those paramedics would mind coming down just to take pics of their ambulance? I admit it's a bit strange but everyone has a hobby.
Well, I hope thing improve for Ambulance Vic paramedics. Have a good Christmas by the way and keep up the good work. Paramedics are awesome hard working people. Take care.
From,
Nick
Hi Nick, I'm sure very few ambos would object to you taking a few shots of the ambulance. Finding a clean one might be a bit harder. We used to get plenty of time to wash the muck off them but not any more. Probably your best bet is to contact the team manager at the branch you are interested in and see if they can hook up a few minutes of photo time for you. There are a few branches around that share locations with the fire services so you might get lucky! Cheers
Thanks for the reply Rob. Much appreciated. Have a great day. From Nick.
Oh sorry I just remember I had one more question to ask you if you know does AV still plan to continue to use the older Sprinter 316 ambulances into the new year or do you know if they are facing retirement soon? I like those older Sprinter ones cause I remember they first started using them in 2000 after the old GMC 'box' ambulances got retired. Got to see them everyday. Good times :) From Nick.
Not sure mate - there's bound to be a few around and motorbikes now too.
Hi Rob. Don't want to be a bother but just though I would share I went to the local AV station not long ago. No one around, ambulances gone. Strange how stations don't seem to have doorbells. Strange that. There was a security camera and I waved at it a couple of times and I stood outside waiting for 45 minutes but no one ever showed up. Probably busy responding to calls. Ah well always next time I guess. Silly how White Pages dont have the number for local AV stations as it would have made it easier to call. Have a good weekend. - Nick.
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