Medical / First Aid Services at Bushfires

[straps]

Have decided to place this thread here as it is the opinion of firies that I mainly want and it is not limited to SAAS, but rather involves St John as well.

What are the thoughts and feelings of the services provided by both St John and SAAS at Staging Areas etc when large fires are on.

• What services have you received / used and what it of used to you personally..??
• Do you believe that St John provide any additional benefit / support to the other agencies already deployed to the incident..??

• Do you believe that SAAS provide any additional benefit / support to the other agencies already deployed to the incident..??

• What are some areas of improvement for the provision of medical / first aid services at these incidents..??

I would welcome constructive, useful discussion on this topic. Also, those of you involved with IMT arrangements, at what point do you consider / activate some form of Medical / First Aid response to large incidents such as bushfires..??

Cheers
Straps
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[misterteddy]

Straps

one of the most useful functions I've found from the medical services is the old eye washout. Underrated by most, it certainly refreshes the eyes that might have copped a bit of smoke, and certainly stops the old red gritty eyes next day.

As for who, what or when..... if I want my eyes washed out, then St Johns are fine. If I hurt myself....please send for SAAS. When should they be there??....well...we send an ambulance to any going house job on standby....don't see the difference (injury wise speaking) from that or a second alarm grass/scrub fire, put them somewhere close by and have them wait.

[SA Firey]

It is standard practice that SAAS is responded to all structure type incidents and mostly in a standby role, and as for bushfires any incident that looks to be a protracted job, the sooner they are called in would help the members welfare in the event of anything unfortunate occurring.

[JamesGar]

My view for the whole First Aid and Ambulance provision for bushfire activities are as follows:

St John: Great service. There to provide first aid support to Fire Fighters and do this at a great level. SAAS support this by providing the initial first aid response until SJ's can be mobilise (about 1 to 2 hours depending on where and when).

SAAS needs to be involved, and have a management presence with lvl 2 and 3 IMT for intelligence gathering. Depending on the size, location and other factor the presence at an IMT site may continue. SAAS resources may be required to remain at Inc Control and Forward Command depending on risk factors to the community and fire fighters. SJ's won't response into a fire ground to treat and transport injured persons (inc fire fighters) where if it is safe and supported SAAS will.

Lots of role definition has and is occuring between SAAS and St John around this issue.

Cheers