Damn scary - new ambulance probe

[Nasty]

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/3821...purs-new-probe

I read this article this morning on waking and to tell you the truth its devastating. Yes the service has tidied up a lot, yes since Grubs death others have been helped partially from the work I undertook last year, NO THINGS ARE STILL NOT RIGHT.

once again my heart is taking a knock.

[86GSXR]

Sorry to hear this Kari, sounds as if theres a lot more room for improvement. That's a big error!

[Mom]

Blows your mind really doesn't it? There must be deeply ingrained, procedural breakdowns through their systems. For it to happen in the exact same place in inexcusable! Really sorry you had to read it love. Maybe a few letters are in order?

[sinfull]

Who the hell lives and works in Taranaki and doesn't know what a rural address is ! How long have we had them ? Bloody sad !

[dogsnbikes]

Sorry to hear this Kari, sounds as if theres a lot more room for improvement. That's a big error!

Thats for sure.....How basic does basic knowledge of the local area have too be ?Do we really live in a society where we are totally dependent on some eletronic thingymebob to tell us where too go and where we are???

It's not like Tahora isn't well sign posted comming from the stratford end,and for the driver not too know what a rapid number is FFS,not too mention the driver being out of hours.....

Maybe 43 should be a composary helicopter zone from Tangarakau Gorge to Whangamomona Saddle

[Little Miss Trouble]

Kari, I'm so sorry to hear that, sending hugs your way.

Rapid numbers have been around for AT LEAST 7 years now, we had one before I escaped Northland in 03

[Urano]

a bit scary to me.
i've been an emergency volunteer for a while... we started the "modern" emergency service in mid '90s, activating the "118" as unified emergency service and linkin all the resources together.
every call arrives to a triage specialized nurse that assign a code (white, green, yellow, red) to the call and coordinating the actions... with a red code call (life threat) we have a service maximum of 5 minutes on site if within the city, and 15 minutes on site if in the country.
then there are different levels of operation: there's the normal ambulance with a driver a nurse and a m.d. or two nurses if the call is maximum a yellow code, there's the resuscitating unit ambulance, with more specific machines, then there is the medical car, which is a normal fast car used to transport a m.d. and emergency equipment to the injured person to stabilize him and wait for the ambulance to take him to the hospital, and there is the helicopter too.
usually medical car is used to arrange rendez vous with ambulance, to get an m.d. on it or to get the doctor to the site of the accident. helicopters are pretty frequent, we have 3 bases within 100 km.
the triage operator can send the data of the call and the coordinates of the injured directly to the ambulance computer via data link, and it will show the direct route to the driver with gps.
actually the gps connection was so slow, years ago, that a lot of experienced drivers knew the route by their own and did not wait for it...
the situation is pretty good here, but there are areas in the south of italy where there are difficulties even with the unified number...
then there is the problem with localization: we are the only european country where a mobile cannot be tracked automatically by police or emergency services, so if the caller don't know exactly where he is there is no way to find him... it's a shame...

the only thing that makes it work is that we've covered with streets every single meter of soil: so we have very minimal situations of "country calls".
you are in the opposite situation, i think: lot of surface of country yard with solo houses in the middle of nothing.

why don't activate a radiobeacon system for the most lonely places, or keep people aware of their home gps coordinates to communicate to the operator?

[BoristheBiter]

Now lets put all the good storys about ambos getting there on time and saving a life.
I bet they outway the negitive ones.
Yes it is a shame it happened but we don't live in a perfect world.

first it was cops now ambos, fire will do something wrong next and the media will blow that up with the "our services are all crap" line.

Nasty you do a fantasic job and we would all be crying without you. don't let this get you down.
I know all to well how crap the comms can be sometimes.

[BoristheBiter]

Oh What is a rapid number?

[Mom]

Oh What is a rapid number?

http://www.police.govt.nz/tenone/200...ture_rapid.htm

Completely inexcusable that an emergency response worker in a rural area did not know what a rapid number is.

[Urano]

http://www.police.govt.nz/tenone/200...ture_rapid.htm
Completely inexcusable that an emergency response worker in a rural area did not know what a rapid number is.

that's SMART!!!
and even simpler than gps...


(i thought that with "rapid" you intended numbers as 911 or 111 or 112... what an ignorance... )

[Mom]

that's SMART!!!
and even simpler than gps...


(i thought that with "rapid" you intended numbers as 911 or 111 or 112... what an ignorance... )

They are fantastic in a rural area. The number is the distance from the intersection, easy peasy to work out. I am staggered that an ambulance driver in a rural area was not aware of them.

[Taz]

Oh What is a rapid number?

Your ticket quota I think?

[Naki Rat]

In depth interview on National Radio now. What a cluster f*ck! - Link here

[Urano]

Nasty, i've understood now the reason of your concern... i'm sorry... couldn't know...

keep though, make noise on it, offer ideas to get it better: you are surely not the only one who want it never to happen again.