Author Topic: Whistleblower blows  (Read 5737 times)

Offline jaff

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Whistleblower blows
« on: July 06, 2009, 12:46:12 AM »
WEST Australia's private ambulance company is fatally flawed, leaving patients to die waiting for assistance, whistleblower paramedics say.

ABC Television's Four Corners program tonight will reveal four deaths which staff say could have been avoided, if not for communication problems at the call centre.

In once case, an elderly woman died while waiting two hours for ambulance assistance.

Despite the caller insisting her grandmother was seriously sick, the call operator classified the job a "priority four" and "non-urgent".

With their identities protected, about 30 paramedics have spoken out, saying repeated requests for a new system to prioritise emergency calls have fallen on deaf ears.

They also say investigations into patient deaths which were not deemed a priority by the call centre should be made public.

The whistleblowers have collected internal audits which revealed 65 priority one cases were not initially dispatched as emergencies by the call centre in March this year.

"Being a paramedic we see lots of unfortunate things that are sad, it's part of what we do," one paramedic says during the program.

"And we live with that.

"But when we see people dying, young or old, when it's a system failure and it was very avoidable and the system has been told and refuses to fix itself, it's something you can't live with and that's why we're here."



Looks like the cats amongst the pigeons again!
Just Another Filtered Fireman

Offline crashndash

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Re: Whistleblower blows
« Reply #1 on: July 06, 2009, 03:35:13 PM »
yup....been brewing a while this one....seeing their nearest interstate colleagues get a huge pay increase over what they earn has probably tipped the apple cart

rescue5271

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Re: Whistleblower blows
« Reply #2 on: July 06, 2009, 06:06:10 PM »
There must be a thing a WA at the moment last week it was the private transfer of those in police lock up's now this one....
« Last Edit: July 06, 2009, 06:08:13 PM by Bill Corcoran »

Offline icpambo

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Re: Whistleblower blows
« Reply #3 on: July 06, 2009, 08:25:27 PM »
The dramas have been on the go for the past 8 years, and its not the private operator, its the state ambulance run by, you guessed it!!!!! the jews of jeruselum,
the omly way to fix the problem is for the gov to take further control, simmilar to what has happened in northern territory where the same bunch has struggled and rorted public funds in a very poor attempt to run the service.

Offline boredmatrix

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Re: Whistleblower blows
« Reply #4 on: July 06, 2009, 11:12:04 PM »
hehehhee.......oh dear....


why does this sh!t keep coming up in the media about St Jacks?  It's like music to my ears......


clearly their (St Jacks) archaic management systems coupled with their MO (service for humanity ie: do it on the cheap...thanks very much $36 million for the biggest state in Aust.) works. 

the NT model has already been mentioned....as much as I whinge about SAAS/DoH - I can honestly say that while SAAS has it's own internal issues relating to Sentinel Events being swept under the carpet....one could only hope that those who are doing the sweeping take note of this very public bollocking - and start being responsible....HG I'm talking to YOU!!
« Last Edit: July 07, 2009, 12:12:53 AM by boredmatrix »

Offline JAFA

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Re: Whistleblower blows
« Reply #5 on: July 07, 2009, 08:28:57 AM »
Oh poor St John. :-D.... If they can’t run an ambulance service how can they run a professional first aid service around the country...

My guess St John NATIONAL management will ask St John WA to get out of the ambulance business. This is what happened in SA in 1989 when St John (then running the ambulance service was brining St John nationally into disrepute)..

Check out the following link and go to the EXTENDED interview with WA St John management available to watch (4 corners had to cut this interview to fit into 60 minute time frame). WA St John CEO mentioned the previous enquiry into them was made commercial in confidence as they were worried about their event, industrial and first aid training "business" could have been harmed be the information contained within !!!!

http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/content/2009/s2615353.htm

Can you believe a state the size and WEALTH of WA still runs a ambulance service that doesn’t use professional CAD and structured call taking. Can you believe their career ambos can’t give IV adrenaline to cardiac arrests or use rigid cervical collars. Can you believe their volunteers only have 9 days training! (gee in SA it takes 6 months to get your Cert II first responder (to be a junior member of a crew) and a further 12+ months to get cert IV ambulance officers),PTS crews sent to emergency jobs and they can handle or deal as a first responder at the job while awaiting paramedics help (in SA all PTS and ESS officers are trained to Cert IV level and equipped to provide good quality BLS while awaiting Paramedic/ICP help), and no country coordinator in their COMMCEN (we have 2 country coordinators and a Country Assist officer on duty here in SA 24 hours a day !)


Boredy is right SAAS is much higher level but he is right SAAS management should be worried because some of their "clinical governance and adverse incident reporting" does not meet standards of other SA health units...... But what do expect when your medical director is a GP !!!!???!!!

Gee their CEO and Medical Director looks shocked and panicked about the amount of information that had been "leaked" to 4 corners !!!!






rescue5271

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Re: Whistleblower blows
« Reply #6 on: July 07, 2009, 03:43:19 PM »
I only caught the last 20mins of the show and from what I heard I am happy to be in SA,by the sounds of it they are well out of date when it comes to CAD and the call takers/dispatch all need re training as for the CEO and the doctor gee time for new managers.

But i did hear that the WA government is reviewing the contract and we may see change,I can only imagine how many more deaths have come out of the stuff ups in WA but have been covered up by ST JOHNS........

Offline CFS_Firey

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Re: Whistleblower blows
« Reply #7 on: July 08, 2009, 10:43:02 AM »
For those that missed it, you can still catch 4 Corners on ABC iView: http://www.abc.net.au/iview/.

rescue5271

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Re: Whistleblower blows
« Reply #8 on: July 08, 2009, 11:24:23 AM »
Having now watched the full story its clear that those in the call centre had no idea of what they where doing when it comes to emergency calls.it would be interesting to find out what training these people have had and if they are paramedics ot just every day staff with basic first aid training who work in comms. As for the medical officer and they CEO when was the last time they went out on a shift and worked with road crews??.

One can only hope that a independent review of ST JOHNS will uncover what paramedic's are saying in the story,Once again well done to the 30 members who spoke out.....

Offline boredmatrix

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Re: Whistleblower blows
« Reply #9 on: August 02, 2009, 01:34:54 AM »
the most remarkable thing about that piece was how much the CEO of St John WA looks, mannerises and sounda like a reincarnated former SAAS CEO....

......He even pronounces "Amberlance" like CL does!

 

anything