Author Topic: Private transfer ambulances (Read 28579 times)

rescue5271 · « **on:** July 20, 2008, 10:07:14 AM »

Is it time that the government looked at inviting private transfer company's to start doing some of the non urgent jobs that would make more SAAS crews free to attend urgent jobs?? It works well in other state's and I have a friend who runs such a service in Victoria all ambulances are fully stocked the same as the service in Victoria and are staffed with a ICU nurse and a PTO (driver) they have no lights and siren as they are only for transfer cases only. I have notice of late that over the weekend country SAAS units spend way too much time doing transfer's and leave a area short of a ambulance and crew for sometime. What do those in SAAS think???

Firey9119 · « **Reply #1 on:** July 20, 2008, 10:24:59 AM »

before i start i am not having a go directly at you bill.

what is it with every one on here lately???

there is a number of forums based "should we get private contractors to do this or that" what cant we doe the job?

now for this post.

saas have casual that do transfers in the city,
so why dont they expaned that service rater then getting other people in to do the job for them??

chook · « **Reply #2 on:** July 20, 2008, 10:45:54 AM »

Mate - most of the "Should we get private contractors" stuff was started by a private contractor

Maybe instead of looking at the eastern state guys, we should look West & North where St John's services are used

It seems to me that some mistakes were made many years ago & now we are paying the price!
And how would private contractors provide the service - any service in rural areas anyway? There wouldn't be enough work to keep them occupied & cost effective, so there would be fewer ATS cars in a more centralised locations.
And the local SAAS station would have less work, so the Bean counters would look for cost savings "as they do" & see a station doing stuff all - lets shut that one down they will say & the situation is worse than it currently is!
More services lost!
People need to remember that private contractors need to make a profit & the privatisation of government services has not led to better outcomes.
Ask yourself this Are we better of now that Telstra, Qantas, ETSA, SAWATER etc are in private hands? My answer is no!
cheers

rescue5271 · « **Reply #3 on:** July 20, 2008, 11:47:37 AM »

Point taken Phil,may be SAAS need to expand the service and also make sure that those that do the work in the counter work 7 days a week and not monday to friday it was just a question that i have been meaning to ask and having seen how it works interstate and with the shortage of SAAS staff just wanted to ask the question....

uniden · « **Reply #4 on:** July 20, 2008, 01:16:56 PM »

SAAS Mt Gambier operate a 76 car from 7am-7pm, 7 days a week purely for transfer services. Victor have a 126 crew that also provides a transfer service everyday. Millicent SAAS are looking at changing their crewing to provide a car on station 24/7 rather than an on call service only between 6pm and 8am, taking a bit of pressure of during the day for their rest break requirements.

rescue5271 · « **Reply #5 on:** July 20, 2008, 07:59:27 PM »

Kools,Naracoorte would have to be getting close to have staff on station 24/7 rather than on recall with their work load??

boredmatrix · « **Reply #6 on:** July 20, 2008, 09:56:55 PM »

I'm not opposed to private companies running the PTS - and to be honest...they can have it!

the new CEO's focus on SAAS service provision is to respond when the 000 line rings. Anything outside of that is not a priority - so if privates take on the PTS work....no sleep will be lost over that.

The truth be known - PTS work for SAAS costs more than it brings in - and lets be honest about something.....if any of us go to hospital for a visit to ED or an admit for several days and are well enough to be discharged - why should SAAS have to take you home again? Is this not a case of public money being mis-spent?

Firey9119's comments about private companies is probably a little narrow minded - PTS work is seriously a waste of public money! MAS and RAV (or whatever the new merged conglomerate will be called) do no elective work at all as the Vic Government doesn't see it as an area in which it should be spending your tax money to provide a "service" which is not really a priority! Private PTS's are actually just a taxi with a bed!

in country areas - local crews will not lose out (ie: stations will not close) if private companies come in and do the elective work. The volunteer crews are there to do the EMERGENCY work - and the elective transfers could seriously wear thin with crews after a while if that is all they are doing. On top of that - who's looking after their own community while they take Mrs Smith 3 towns away for a podiatry appointment? is this effective resourcing and use of public money? I think not.....

chook · « **Reply #7 on:** July 20, 2008, 10:41:44 PM »

I hope your right mate. Just there is a lot of weird stuff going on across the whole sector.
And I would hate to see any further reduction of serices.
Anyway under the new health plan Berri would be an ideal spot for a contractor base

cheers

RescueHazmat · « **Reply #8 on:** July 20, 2008, 10:43:25 PM »

Couldn't agree more BM!..

Its nice reading educated and knowledgable opinions on various matters!

boredmatrix · « **Reply #9 on:** July 21, 2008, 12:42:10 AM »

chook - you'll have to trust me that the new CEO is all about increasing SAAS's EMERGENCY service capacity.......SAAS's role in the "new look" health department is a lot more inclusive as a dept of SA health, and not just left on the outer reaches as has happened in the past...

...Ambulance is long past first aid - a lot more focus on primary medical intervention and appropriate referral which results in hospital avoidance is the key to the future sustainability and contribution of SAAS to the whole of the states public coffers.

thanks RescueHazmat! Talk to you soon sunshine!

chook · « **Reply #10 on:** July 21, 2008, 06:48:49 AM »

thanks for your reply mate

Just after discussion on another thread alarm bells were ringing.
I just hope the service & professionalism I have experienced with you guys on the road is the same in NSW.
Anyway thanks again & cheers

whitecloud · « **Reply #11 on:** October 22, 2008, 09:52:52 PM »

Can I ask what is wrong with SAAS's current RMTS staff? They do the same job as the city ATS crews but in the country. Would it be worth perhaps expanding this service instead of necessarily looking at the Eastern states for answers?

rescue5271 · « **Reply #12 on:** October 23, 2008, 05:55:09 AM »

Expand the service and make it 24hrs not just a 12 hour shift or what ever it is now....

RescueHazmat · « **Reply #13 on:** October 23, 2008, 09:10:43 AM »

ATS/+ is a 24hour shift.. (In a number of areas)..

Which service/shifts, are you referring to Bill?

rescue5271 · « **Reply #14 on:** October 23, 2008, 02:34:03 PM »

IF it was a 24 hours service then why is it that country SAAS units are doing most of the transfer's,so is the problem there is only one crew on to look aftre a whole region???

RescueHazmat · « **Reply #15 on:** October 23, 2008, 03:50:32 PM »

Which area are you talking about Bill?.. I know of a few stations which has multiple ATS/+ Ambulances on 24/7 !

At the end of the day, the shifts are going to exist where the workload is.. Need to recuperate costs to pay for the service..

Robert · « **Reply #16 on:** October 23, 2008, 04:18:07 PM »

Metropolitan
Emergency support (old ATS+) operates two 24hr Ambulances.
The Rest of the Emerg support Ambulances, work on a 12hr day or day afternoon roster.
PTS (Old ATS) Ambulances work an 8hr day shift (Mon-Fri only)
These crews only service the metro/fringe area (with some country RVs)
Metro Emergency Ambulances CAN not be tasked to non urgent cases.

Country
Mt Gambier, Murray Bridge, Wallaroo run a 12 hr RMTS (Regional Medical Transport service) day shift Ambulance, Victor Harbor run a day/afternoon RMTS car, on top of their normal Emergency Ambulances

Country Emergency Ambulance can be tasked to do non urgent cases.

Country Volunteer Ambulances are given the option to do Non urgent cases /transfers; they DO NOT have to do the case.

SAAS E.O.C (Comms)/ State Duty manager are responsible for maintaining area coverage, remember they can see the BIG picture, they do send Emergency Ambulances COQ, have on call crews and have lots of saas cars that are always driving around the state, with managers / RTLs / CSO etc that first respond.

SAAS has
107 ambulance stations
17 metropolitan stations
20 country career stations (Wallaroo is career and volunteer)
67 country volunteer stations
217 ambulances
113 other vehicles

boredmatrix · « **Reply #17 on:** October 24, 2008, 12:38:35 AM »

NERD ALERT!!!!!!

RMTS was orginally designed to take the non-emerg workload pressure off of primarily country career and volunteer crews, hence the reason they are located in the places they are. (ie: Wallaroo to stop vol. crews doing the thousands of transfers to town, and in the case of victor harbour - to stop emerg crews always disappearing up to FMC and leaving their catchment areas uncovered)

as for suggestions about expanding RMTS - this may well happen, but I think the focus on this thread had more Metro connitations than it did country. Not necessarily looking towards the eastern states for answers, but now that the purse-strings are being pulled so tight (all MH and Driver training has been cancelled indefinitely is just one example....no matter that it's a primary function of OH&S) I can't see how the Gov't will want to continue supporting a taxi service with public money when it prob doesn't need to.

Sam · « **Reply #18 on:** October 29, 2008, 05:07:31 PM »

Please tell me how SAAS country vollies have a choice of doing transfers? If you are rostered on you do the case. If you are not rostered on they page until they get a crew. RFDS does not work around vollie times, they work around there own schedules. Plus in rural areas where your next ambulance is 1 hour away you don't have a choice.

Robert · « **Reply #19 on:** October 29, 2008, 09:50:26 PM »

Sam - talking about long distance transfers not short RFDS runs out to the airport.
Vollies have the option of being local only/ emergency only on their roster.

rescue5271 · « **Reply #20 on:** October 30, 2008, 06:57:00 AM »

That is not correct Robert........From what a few SAAS volunteers where telling me that in a small town you have to do it as there is no one else around and robert some Volunteer crews are driving up to 100KMS one way to drop of a patient for a xray waiting up there and then bring them back.....While doing this they leave their area with out a ambulance for sometime and it takes a while for other crews to get into that area.....

misterteddy · « **Reply #21 on:** October 30, 2008, 02:22:11 PM »

Quote from: Bill Corcoran on October 30, 2008, 06:57:00 AM

That is not correct Robert........

Actually Robert is very correct. The latest Tactical Deployment Plan (vers4)and the transport choices circulars (numerous ad nauseum), very strongly empower the crew, and thats all crews paid and unpaid to reject cases that do not warrant the use of an emergency ambulance.

For Category 5 and 6 patients, RMTS is the option to be usedfor long distance and inter town transfers in the country. Very succinct and very straight forward.

There is a difficulty in smaller outlying towns that needs to be looked at, but they are the vast exception...and not the rule. A country ATS model is being looked at for some centres (Bordertown, Strathalbyn, Goolwa, Riverland, and the mid north as an example) but the fact remains - Country crews, and certainly unpaid country crews are currently enabled AND encouraged to ensure their proper availability to attend emergency cases by limiting the number of inter town transfers. If anyone has an issue on shift - speak to the State Duty Manager, they have been given a very broad range of authority to refuse to carry - including disagreeing with MOs that decide that people need transfering at 2am without the MO seeing them.

Roll on the brave new world

Rampart · « **Reply #22 on:** November 01, 2008, 01:23:54 PM »

Who are First Care Medical??? I saw these guys at the Slipnot concert at Wayville Showgrounds last week. They were treating people and wearing green uniforms some has Paramedic on uniform others had Nurse or First Responder. Are these guys a private ambulance service?

Robert · « **Reply #23 on:** November 01, 2008, 02:04:34 PM »

No not a private ambulance service...Check em out at
www.firstcaremedical.com.au

First Care Medical is a specialist company established in 2004 to provide
professional medical support to the events industry.

First Care Medical is the SA distributor of Zoll defibrillators and equipment and sells First Aid and Medical equipment.

provide fully equipped medics for low risk events through to complete medical centres and advanced life support teams with Doctors, Nurses and Paramedics for large or high risk events.

All First Care staff hold real emergency qualifications with the experience to back it up.

First Care Medical is director lead, you will see them in the field at a variety of venues and events. They are trained and experienced in event medical care. Between them they have over 50 years experience in pre hospital and in hospital care.

First Care Medical is a proud member of Emergency Care Providers Australia (ECPA)

misterteddy · « **Reply #24 on:** November 01, 2008, 08:26:31 PM »

oh!...that Robert...lol

Author Topic: Private transfer ambulances (Read 28579 times)

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