SAAS Volly Story on Today Tonight - TONIGHT !

[No Care 1]

Hey just saw a TV ad for Today Tonight 1830 hours tonight Channel 7.... looks like some type of story about how bad SAAS vollys are and how ?

I'm sure it will be a fair, balanced and well researched story considering Today Tonight is involved  (PS that was sarcasm!)

[boredmatrix]

channel 7 getting stuck into SAAS....or any other agency for that matter?

wow.....

....leapords really don't change their spots.....

[misterteddy]

actually they didnt mention Volunteers at all I didnt think. Unless you're drawing that conclusion from the comments regarding "losing control of the Comms Centre"

If thats their argument, lets hope someone with half a brain is on hand to point out the benefits now as opposed to a century ago

[bajdas]

I had a quick look at http://www.todaytonightadelaide.com.au/ Not much detail yet except for the title 'ambulance response times'

[excelcare]

Seems like Management have hushed Today Tonight up as it displays a poor image to the public about our so called u beaut ambulance service now government run.
If SA Health had left the independant country services the way they were instead of forcing them to merge with "SA Ambulance" by revoking their Emergency Ambulance Licence until they did merge. SAAS like St John Ambulance took over a lot of District Council run ambulance services that have in some case done a diservice to rural SA.

[misterteddy]

oh wjw......you seriously cant be serious....

The private services that I viewed a few (maybe several now) years ago were jokes. Ancient equipment, back from the days of CC&T in black and white....I'm sure some of them still had Trilene inhalers tucked away somewhere; ancient crew - nothing like bringing your patients with you to a job; poorly trained (First Aid if you were lucky along with some local instruction and little clinical guidance (let alone governance) and most importantly, unsustainable unfinancial operations. Jamestown was a classic case.

For all its issues, SAAS have provided a far superior product to the rural folk than they ever had. It is however up the THEM to step up and man it - nothing has changed from the days they were talking about on the TT program. Someone still has to get off their butt and do it. If you want a full time paramedic crew in the middle of bumfuXXnowhere, then don't complain when your taxes go up to pay for it. Its the same problem that CFS face, lots of people saying we want/deserve a professional service, no-one willing to man it, or pay for it

As for hushing up Today Tonight...lmao....as if that could ever happen, you've never dealt with them have you?

[rescue5271]

Like all services in the country SAAS is one that is really in a bad way with low volunteer numbers,There is no easy answer to how to fill the gaps but they could try paging the CFS who's members are trained in first aid or in some area advanced resus. It would be far better to get a local CFS or SES crew there to provide some life support till SAAS arrive from 45 or 100kms away...

The story could have gone further if they really want it to by looking at the over worked staff stations in the country and the city. I know our staff station here is always busy and staff are always on 10hrs off line so the Volunteer stations which are some 47kms away have to cover the area from their location.So work that out how long it would take Lucindale or Padthaway to respond to a MVA or heart attack in our town?? Mind you in the past we would be paged to help but for some reason this has stopped....

[misterteddy]

Bill, it's been a stated CFS and MFS position for ages that crews will not be paged for non MVA Medical First Response, thats SAAS's role. If you are not responding to an MVA as part of the fire/rescue response they wont page you either. If you are, then you are expected to undertake first aid and advanced resus roles until SAAS get there.

[Tonto Goldstein]

Bill, it's been a stated CFS and MFS position for ages that crews will not be paged for non MVA Medical First Response, thats SAAS's role.

Happened a couple of weeks ago, in Peterborough, if I recall it correctly. Lady in cardiac arrest, ambulance coming from Jamestown or similar.

[disOrderly]

Bill, it's been a stated CFS and MFS position for ages that crews will not be paged for non MVA Medical First Response, thats SAAS's role.

Happened a couple of weeks ago, in Peterborough, if I recall it correctly. Lady in cardiac arrest, ambulance coming from Jamestown or similar.

Thats what the TT story was about.

I don't understand why CFS/MFS/SES can't be paged to help in rural areas. Surely volunteers sign up to their respective service to help the community? Isn't responding to the medical emergency of one of their community members until appropriate help arrives doing just that? It's really no different to that CFS member doing the same thing for someone on the street till Ambulance arrives.

If the situation was slightly different, say both Ambulances were out on important jobs and this happened, would the story still be the same?

Also good to see that the story wasn't exactly negative towards SAAS and wasn't hugely exaggerated. Although, I would have liked to see them mention the increase in workload for both metro and volunteer stations. I've heard that the last couple of days have been interesting, saw a no cover down south page for a Noarlunga crew and I know that there was no cover around the city/North Adelaide the earlier this week too. The public would hate to know that resources are spread that thin and we don't need SAAS turning into NSWAS...

[misterteddy]

disOrderley......on the surface I have no argument with what you say

But..... the MFS won't do it unless they are paid a salary increase to provide an extra service. That was mentioned 4 or 5 years ago after the MFA's successful first responder trial was published. Not saying it's right....just how it is.

As for CFS, the stated reason is that we have precious few opportunities to use people during the day in yellow Turnout gear, before their family or employers start to jack up....CFS thinking is to preserve those uses for fires and other CFS tasking, rather than be swamped with SAAS first response type roles. Can't really fault the logic there. The other thought is that many firies don't want to do cardiac arrests, collapse or other medical related stuff...that's not why they joined. Again, can't fault that

For those people that want to do the role....well....yellow and green arent mutually exclusive, go join a station, I'm sure they will be glad to see you (yes, even Strath)

[rescue5271]

My own group has  members who hold first aid and advanced resus and are more than willing to help SAAS when needed, It should be noted that more and more CFS/SES/MFS are being paged for patient lifts only to arrive and find that SAAS need a hand with CPR . We are a community service and I am sure if SAAS where 45kms away at another job and a cat A came in that CFS would be more than happy to help. About a month ago there was a cat A up Mallee way SAAS where over 50KMs away at MVA so CFS where paged to provide life support till SAAS arrived.

If in rural area's CFS brigades or members want to help SAAS then their needs to be a MOU in place so that we as a service can help SAAS in their time of need...If we look at Victoria, CFA volunteers and staff along with MFB also back up Ambos to jobs, works well there and it could work well here.

[excelcare]

Mr Teddy in reply to your comment on my submission. I went to the story on the TT site and there is just a text file there with the SAAS website and volunteering with SAAS. Was expecting to see the story about this issue. So have thought that SAAS had put a court order on it for TT not to show it on their website.

[jason]

Like all services in the country SAAS is one that is really in a bad way with low volunteer numbers,There is no easy answer to how to fill the gaps but they could try paging the CFS who's members are trained in first aid or in some area advanced resus.

Simple answer... Employee a Paramedic at every Ambulance station, just like Vic, NSW and QLD do.

The story could have gone further if they really want it to by looking at the over worked staff stations in the country and the city. I know our staff station here is always busy and staff are always on 10hrs off line so the Volunteer stations which are some 47kms away have to cover the area from their location.So work that out how long it would take Lucindale or Padthaway to respond to a MVA or heart attack in our town?? Mind you in the past we would be paged to help but for some reason this has stopped....

Bill your station does NOT go off line, it’s called a "10 hour break" and it basically means the paramedic crew is responding from home NOT the station. This is very common & has minimal impact on service delivery.

[disOrderly]

Mr Teddy in reply to your comment on my submission. I went to the story on the TT site and there is just a text file there with the SAAS website and volunteering with SAAS. Was expecting to see the story about this issue. So have thought that SAAS had put a court order on it for TT not to show it on their website.

They might not have uploaded the video yet.

[misterteddy]

Simple answer... Employee a Paramedic at every Ambulance station, just like Vic, NSW and QLD do.

err....no they don't. Large tracts of Qld and Victoria are served by Volunteer Responders of varying training and qualifications, until a single responding (and sometimes transporting) paramedic arrives from the nearest paid station. Not sure I'd hold that up as the best practice

[rescue5271]

Sorry Jason your wrong once the crew that is on have done more than there allocated hours for call outs / job they go on a 10 hr break and its up to the Volunteer stations to do the work. Here in Naracoorte the crew you have on during the day is the same crew you get at night time they just take the ambulance home and respond from there...

[Alex]

Bill, Naracoorte is a career station. Therefore shift roster covering 24/7.

Some [not sure if all] country stations have a roster of 2 days, 2 days with on-call nights [whilst another crew [1st response] is on station], 2 nights, 4 off.

The station does not 'shut down'.