Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Andrew.
Speaker 2 (00:00):
Good morning again, very good morning, so the third time.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Yeah, sorry about that, mate. This phone line's giving us
some grief this morning. Now, now tell me. On the weekend,
we've had quite a few people get in contact with
us in relation to the footy on the weekend and
the fact that one of the games had to be
delayed as one of the women's Buffs players, as I
understand it, was quite badly injured and had laid on
(00:28):
the field for quite some time waiting for the ambulance
to arrive. Talk us through what happened from your perspective, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Sure, Look, so, first of all, you know, we hope
that the female patient that suffered the injury is making
a recovery, and from my understanding, was quite a nasty
league fratch. So first of all, we hope that they're
making a recovery after being in hospital. From our perspective,
we received a call the patient had sustained a lead
(00:58):
injury and we responded cruise when we were able to.
Because of the nature of where the person was and
what had come across. We responded a single paramedic initially
because all of our other crews were tied up on
cases and from the main we received the call, it
was twenty nine minutes and we had that paramedic on scene.
(01:21):
That paramedic was able to, I believe, work with the
trainers that were out there and in terms of provide
adequate pain release and stabilize and treat the patient on
the field. From that point there we were endeavoring to
get an ambulance there to transport the patient to hospital. Unfortunately,
(01:43):
our workload at that time and the resourcing that we
have in Darwin was overstretched. And to give a bit
of an example, a lot of what that is between
three point thirty in the afternoon and eight thirty, so
over that five hour period, we had forty cases that
required our attendance, of which fifteen of those were a
(02:05):
priority one, which is the lights and sirens urgent lights
threat response. So at that time and when the patient
was on the field, we had an ongoing workload and
as most of people are aware, we only have fifteen
sorry correction, we only have that time during the day
(02:27):
six emergency ambulances in Darwin, and so from a resourcing
point of view, the response for those other lights and
sirens cases you know, does take presence. We triarged all
of our calls. Between when our paramedic got on SCEEN
(02:47):
and when the ambulance arrived there was just over an
hours an hour and ten minutes, which is a long time,
and we understand that. But they were in the care
of our paramedic and they were provided with good pain relief,
and we understand that. Obviously the delay that that cause
had an impact on moving the patient from the field
and the flow on subsequent effect end of the men's game.
(03:10):
And you know that paramedic made the decision at the
time not to move the patient, and I believe that
was just due to the nature of the injuries and
concern for the well being of the patient. So once
the ambulance were arrived on scene, it was worth less
than fifteen minutes and we had the patient in the
ambulance and on the way to hospital.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
So by the sounds of it, so the paramedic, the
first paramedic, but it was a single paramedic, was there
within twenty nine minutes on the scene. But it was
more a having to wait then for somebody else or
for others to come and assist that paramedic due to
the fact that there was also fifteen other category one
(03:49):
incidents that Saint John were dealing with at that point
in time.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
That's correct. Yeah, in that sort of window of time
preceding the case, and then while that case was run,
we had fifteen Priority one incidents going on, and so
this case and albeit a serious leg fracture in our
trioch system, that's a priority too. And but so unfortunately,
(04:13):
in that period of time after the single paramedic got there,
we did have an ambulance on its way to there,
but it was diverted to a lights and sirens response.
So again we understand the frustrations in particularly in and
around both the football but then also the care and
the distress that it caused for that patient on the ground.
So we you know, we apologize for the for the
(04:34):
fact that it took a long time to get there,
but unfortunately that is the resourcing that we have, you know,
you know, to supply in Darwin.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
So at this point in time, six emergency ambulances and
operating at any one time. I mean, Andrew, it does
sound like we need more, but I know that that
comes down to sort of funding and a whole raft
of things.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
Yeah, look, we're working with in Tea Health and int.
We We've been discussing with them around the requirements for
ambulances and you know how we can look to speak
with them in terms of funding for additional for additional resources.
We know that our workload is continues to rise and
go up, and in the last year we saw an
(05:17):
eleven percent increase across the territory in the ambulance workload
and that flows into Unfortunately, then you know, with those
delays in terms of you know, receiving, getting crews to patients.
We know that that's you know, that impacts on those
people that are having a health crisis at the time
we do triage. And obviously we know our you know,
(05:41):
we need to send those patients to those lights and sirens,
all those jobs that are seen as lights areat and
unfortunately for our priority to responses, which are all still
very much people who are sick and need a response,
it does mean that they those cases quite often wait longer.
We do have a criteria or a response that's sort
of it beats around the national standards of getting to
(06:02):
priority two cases and that's that we should be aiming
to have an ambulance on a priority two case within
thirty minutes. Unfortunately, in Darwin. At the moment, we're only
reaching that KPI around thirty four percent of the time.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
Well, I mean that that must be hard for you guys,
because you're in the very business of wanting to help
people and wanting to get there as quickly as you can.
But it can be difficult if you don't have the
you know, enough cruise or the resources to be able
to do that.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
Yeah. Look, obviously it does play on the mindset of
the paramedics and it does put a little bit of
pressure on them to clear the hospital or to try
and get to the hospital and move on to the
next case. And you know that we try to make
sure that the well being of our staff and you
know that we can get those responses going on. And look,
(06:50):
you know, I suppose while there was a delay in
the ambulance. You know, I will say, as I said,
we did get a angle responding paramit there to support
the team that was with the patient and they received
you know, appropriate care and including pain relief and ongoing monitoring.
The patient was stable, and you know that resulted in
(07:13):
the fact that yes there was a delay, but the
patient was in good care and there's been taken through
the hospital for the further treatment.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
Andrew, before I move along, what kind of I mean,
without going into specifics obviously, what kind of of incidents
are regarded as category one? I mean, is it that
real life threatening stuff?
Speaker 2 (07:32):
Yeah, so those sort of things that are category ones
are the things that are the life threats. So that's
the things in terms of you know, severe respiratory distress,
so you things like your asthmas or shorter breath where
people are able to speak, cardiac conditions with cardiac chest
pain with you know, those sort of responses that you
know indicate that you know it could be a heart attack,
(07:55):
altered conscious state seizures, So those sort of things that
you know, when we were about you know, those primary
ABC's airwe breathing and circulation issues, they're they're the key
things that I suppose trigger off a priority one and
that The tree Arch system that we use through the
communications center with our highly trained call takers is the
(08:17):
same call system that's used internationally and so it's accredited
and well structured. It is an adverse risk adverse system,
so it does prioritize up. But like everything, we need
to triarge these cases process and so while that's done
by our call takers. We also have a clinician in
comms who is able to look at some of these
(08:39):
cases and sometimes is able to say no, you know,
with a putting a clinician's brain onto it, I suppose
sometimes is able to say no, actually, this one needs
to be upgraded because of this, or I'm concerned about
these type of things. So you know, that's that's another
layer I suppose in our system that tries to make
sure that we can get the right resource to the
right patient at the right time.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
Well, there's there's no doubt that there is so much
that our paramedics are called out to every single day,
and just on that, I do want to flick back
to Saturday, where we know that in Catherine, a quad
bite crash on a remote station occurred. The nearby health
clinic attended, but as I understand it, unfortunately that patient
(09:19):
passed away.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
Yeah, look absolutely tragic when we when we hear about
these fatalities, and in this case, our thoughts go out
to all those involved. We received a triple zero call
from the outstation and in conjunction through CareFlight and the
d m O service, we coordinated a response with the
(09:45):
help the local health clinic to respond to support and
our call takers provided resuscitation advice over the phone to
the people on the outstation, but unfortunately what could be done.
And so as I said, our thoughts go out to
all those involved.
Speaker 1 (09:59):
Yeah, absolutely terrible stuff. Just to wrap up this morning,
we know that in some really good news, the Excellence
Awards are actually being held tonight, aren't they.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
Yeah, the Excellence Awards are being held tonight. And look,
it is a way where both internally as an organization,
we can acknowledge those staff that go above and beyond,
and we know all of our staff do an amazing
job each year and every single day. But you know,
when we have our awards each year, it's a way
that we're for those ones that are nominated. And the
nominations both come internally and externally. So this year we
(10:35):
received a large number of nominations externally, and that's from
members of the public, other emergency services, health services that
have all acknowledged, you know, some of our clinicians, whether
they be volunteers, whether they be paramedics and clinicians in
what they do, and so great night it will be
a chance for us to really go through and acknowledge
(10:58):
those members in the organization that are in the background.
So the support services acknowledging our volunteers and our paramedics,
and that culminates today tonight with the Paramedic of the
Year award that will be being presented. So yeah, as
I said, all of our staff do an amazing job
every year and every single day. This is the twenty
(11:20):
fifth year that the Paramedic of the Year and the
awards have been run and so you know, we really
appreciate the support of the Rotary Club who've been supporting
that for the twenty five years, and all of our sponsors,
and as I said, I know that from our staff too.
It's a really important bay of receiving positive feedback for
(11:44):
the great work that they do.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
Well, I reckon we'll probably be talking to you or
somebody else later in the week to find out who
the paramedics are and who those that have been recognized
as well for the wonderful work that they do. Andrew Thomas,
the Saint John Ambulance Director of Ambulance Services, really appreciate
your time this morning and thank you very much for
giving us a bit more detail on that situation on
(12:06):
the weekend. As well at the footy.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
Yeah, no problem, and as I said, we're obviously reviewing
all of the aspects around that case. This needs there's
anything we can obviously do to improve our response times
and we know that we're working to deliver the best
care that we can to the Northern Territory.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
Good stuff, Thank you, thanks so much for your time
this morning.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
Thanks Coatie,
Andrew.
Speaker 2 (00:00):
Good morning again, very good morning, so the third time.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Yeah, sorry about that, mate. This phone line's giving us
some grief this morning. Now, now tell me. On the weekend,
we've had quite a few people get in contact with
us in relation to the footy on the weekend and
the fact that one of the games had to be
delayed as one of the women's Buffs players, as I
understand it, was quite badly injured and had laid on
(00:28):
the field for quite some time waiting for the ambulance
to arrive. Talk us through what happened from your perspective, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Sure, Look, so, first of all, you know, we hope
that the female patient that suffered the injury is making
a recovery, and from my understanding, was quite a nasty
league fratch. So first of all, we hope that they're
making a recovery after being in hospital. From our perspective,
we received a call the patient had sustained a lead
(00:58):
injury and we responded cruise when we were able to.
Because of the nature of where the person was and
what had come across. We responded a single paramedic initially
because all of our other crews were tied up on
cases and from the main we received the call, it
was twenty nine minutes and we had that paramedic on scene.
(01:21):
That paramedic was able to, I believe, work with the
trainers that were out there and in terms of provide
adequate pain release and stabilize and treat the patient on
the field. From that point there we were endeavoring to
get an ambulance there to transport the patient to hospital. Unfortunately,
(01:43):
our workload at that time and the resourcing that we
have in Darwin was overstretched. And to give a bit
of an example, a lot of what that is between
three point thirty in the afternoon and eight thirty, so
over that five hour period, we had forty cases that
required our attendance, of which fifteen of those were a
(02:05):
priority one, which is the lights and sirens urgent lights
threat response. So at that time and when the patient
was on the field, we had an ongoing workload and
as most of people are aware, we only have fifteen
sorry correction, we only have that time during the day
(02:27):
six emergency ambulances in Darwin, and so from a resourcing
point of view, the response for those other lights and
sirens cases you know, does take presence. We triarged all
of our calls. Between when our paramedic got on SCEEN
(02:47):
and when the ambulance arrived there was just over an
hours an hour and ten minutes, which is a long time,
and we understand that. But they were in the care
of our paramedic and they were provided with good pain relief,
and we understand that. Obviously the delay that that cause
had an impact on moving the patient from the field
and the flow on subsequent effect end of the men's game.
(03:10):
And you know that paramedic made the decision at the
time not to move the patient, and I believe that
was just due to the nature of the injuries and
concern for the well being of the patient. So once
the ambulance were arrived on scene, it was worth less
than fifteen minutes and we had the patient in the
ambulance and on the way to hospital.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
So by the sounds of it, so the paramedic, the
first paramedic, but it was a single paramedic, was there
within twenty nine minutes on the scene. But it was
more a having to wait then for somebody else or
for others to come and assist that paramedic due to
the fact that there was also fifteen other category one
(03:49):
incidents that Saint John were dealing with at that point
in time.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
That's correct. Yeah, in that sort of window of time
preceding the case, and then while that case was run,
we had fifteen Priority one incidents going on, and so
this case and albeit a serious leg fracture in our
trioch system, that's a priority too. And but so unfortunately,
(04:13):
in that period of time after the single paramedic got there,
we did have an ambulance on its way to there,
but it was diverted to a lights and sirens response.
So again we understand the frustrations in particularly in and
around both the football but then also the care and
the distress that it caused for that patient on the ground.
So we you know, we apologize for the for the
(04:34):
fact that it took a long time to get there,
but unfortunately that is the resourcing that we have, you know,
you know, to supply in Darwin.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
So at this point in time, six emergency ambulances and
operating at any one time. I mean, Andrew, it does
sound like we need more, but I know that that
comes down to sort of funding and a whole raft
of things.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
Yeah, look, we're working with in Tea Health and int.
We We've been discussing with them around the requirements for
ambulances and you know how we can look to speak
with them in terms of funding for additional for additional resources.
We know that our workload is continues to rise and
go up, and in the last year we saw an
(05:17):
eleven percent increase across the territory in the ambulance workload
and that flows into Unfortunately, then you know, with those
delays in terms of you know, receiving, getting crews to patients.
We know that that's you know, that impacts on those
people that are having a health crisis at the time
we do triage. And obviously we know our you know,
(05:41):
we need to send those patients to those lights and sirens,
all those jobs that are seen as lights areat and
unfortunately for our priority to responses, which are all still
very much people who are sick and need a response,
it does mean that they those cases quite often wait longer.
We do have a criteria or a response that's sort
of it beats around the national standards of getting to
(06:02):
priority two cases and that's that we should be aiming
to have an ambulance on a priority two case within
thirty minutes. Unfortunately, in Darwin. At the moment, we're only
reaching that KPI around thirty four percent of the time.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
Well, I mean that that must be hard for you guys,
because you're in the very business of wanting to help
people and wanting to get there as quickly as you can.
But it can be difficult if you don't have the
you know, enough cruise or the resources to be able
to do that.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
Yeah. Look, obviously it does play on the mindset of
the paramedics and it does put a little bit of
pressure on them to clear the hospital or to try
and get to the hospital and move on to the
next case. And you know that we try to make
sure that the well being of our staff and you
know that we can get those responses going on. And look,
(06:50):
you know, I suppose while there was a delay in
the ambulance. You know, I will say, as I said,
we did get a angle responding paramit there to support
the team that was with the patient and they received
you know, appropriate care and including pain relief and ongoing monitoring.
The patient was stable, and you know that resulted in
(07:13):
the fact that yes there was a delay, but the
patient was in good care and there's been taken through
the hospital for the further treatment.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
Andrew, before I move along, what kind of I mean,
without going into specifics obviously, what kind of of incidents
are regarded as category one? I mean, is it that
real life threatening stuff?
Speaker 2 (07:32):
Yeah, so those sort of things that are category ones
are the things that are the life threats. So that's
the things in terms of you know, severe respiratory distress,
so you things like your asthmas or shorter breath where
people are able to speak, cardiac conditions with cardiac chest
pain with you know, those sort of responses that you
know indicate that you know it could be a heart attack,
(07:55):
altered conscious state seizures, So those sort of things that
you know, when we were about you know, those primary
ABC's airwe breathing and circulation issues, they're they're the key
things that I suppose trigger off a priority one and
that The tree Arch system that we use through the
communications center with our highly trained call takers is the
(08:17):
same call system that's used internationally and so it's accredited
and well structured. It is an adverse risk adverse system,
so it does prioritize up. But like everything, we need
to triarge these cases process and so while that's done
by our call takers. We also have a clinician in
comms who is able to look at some of these
(08:39):
cases and sometimes is able to say no, you know,
with a putting a clinician's brain onto it, I suppose
sometimes is able to say no, actually, this one needs
to be upgraded because of this, or I'm concerned about
these type of things. So you know, that's that's another
layer I suppose in our system that tries to make
sure that we can get the right resource to the
right patient at the right time.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
Well, there's there's no doubt that there is so much
that our paramedics are called out to every single day,
and just on that, I do want to flick back
to Saturday, where we know that in Catherine, a quad
bite crash on a remote station occurred. The nearby health
clinic attended, but as I understand it, unfortunately that patient
(09:19):
passed away.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
Yeah, look absolutely tragic when we when we hear about
these fatalities, and in this case, our thoughts go out
to all those involved. We received a triple zero call
from the outstation and in conjunction through CareFlight and the
d m O service, we coordinated a response with the
(09:45):
help the local health clinic to respond to support and
our call takers provided resuscitation advice over the phone to
the people on the outstation, but unfortunately what could be done.
And so as I said, our thoughts go out to
all those involved.
Speaker 1 (09:59):
Yeah, absolutely terrible stuff. Just to wrap up this morning,
we know that in some really good news, the Excellence
Awards are actually being held tonight, aren't they.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
Yeah, the Excellence Awards are being held tonight. And look,
it is a way where both internally as an organization,
we can acknowledge those staff that go above and beyond,
and we know all of our staff do an amazing
job each year and every single day. But you know,
when we have our awards each year, it's a way
that we're for those ones that are nominated. And the
nominations both come internally and externally. So this year we
(10:35):
received a large number of nominations externally, and that's from
members of the public, other emergency services, health services that
have all acknowledged, you know, some of our clinicians, whether
they be volunteers, whether they be paramedics and clinicians in
what they do, and so great night it will be
a chance for us to really go through and acknowledge
(10:58):
those members in the organization that are in the background.
So the support services acknowledging our volunteers and our paramedics,
and that culminates today tonight with the Paramedic of the
Year award that will be being presented. So yeah, as
I said, all of our staff do an amazing job
every year and every single day. This is the twenty
(11:20):
fifth year that the Paramedic of the Year and the
awards have been run and so you know, we really
appreciate the support of the Rotary Club who've been supporting
that for the twenty five years, and all of our sponsors,
and as I said, I know that from our staff too.
It's a really important bay of receiving positive feedback for
(11:44):
the great work that they do.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
Well, I reckon we'll probably be talking to you or
somebody else later in the week to find out who
the paramedics are and who those that have been recognized
as well for the wonderful work that they do. Andrew Thomas,
the Saint John Ambulance Director of Ambulance Services, really appreciate
your time this morning and thank you very much for
giving us a bit more detail on that situation on
(12:06):
the weekend. As well at the footy.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
Yeah, no problem, and as I said, we're obviously reviewing
all of the aspects around that case. This needs there's
anything we can obviously do to improve our response times
and we know that we're working to deliver the best
care that we can to the Northern Territory.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
Good stuff, Thank you, thanks so much for your time
this morning.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
Thanks Coatie,
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