Ambulance Active Spring 2011Published By Countrywide Austral

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active places Community Paramedic model flawed Donelle Carver, Vice President Ambulance Employees Association (WA) A few months ago I temporarily left Perth to board a plane for Kununurra, to take up a position as relief for the Remote Community Paramedic - a program being introduced to support volunteers in remote and rural areas in Western Australia. Being someone who grew up in the beach side suburb of Manly in Sydney, and living in the WA capital since the early 1990s, the word remote took on another meaning to that of the device that opens your garage door. My core role was to encourage, train, mentor and support volunteers to perform the everyday ambulance calls and intervene when Advance Life Support skills were required. Kununurra is located in the centre of the Kimberley region with picturesque scenery and world-renowned attractions like the Bungle Bungle Ranges, El Questro Station and the Gibb River Road, which attract thousands of tourists to the region each year. During my time there, we received several calls to gorges along the Gibb River Road, which required multiple agency responses due to the remoteness, and often prolonged periods to attend and retrieve patients due to no aerial assistance. On three occasions I was called to areas for rescue and spent on average between 12 and 15 hours, and travelled up to 600 kilometres on a round trip attending these “ I am of the opinion that the Community Remote Paramedic model is flawed and does not work well in extremely remote areas like the Kimberley region of Western Australia.” calls, with volunteers who donate their time to the community. One call, which is prominent in my mind, was a vehicle rollover on the Gibb River Road some 300 kilometres south-south-west of Kununurra. A volunteer crew responded in the Mercedes van, while I was in the personnel carrier alongside a volunteer officer. The police followed shortly after. The call was late in the afternoon and by dusk we arrived to cross the Pentecost River. The ambulance became stranded and as night fell, police officers were on the bonnet of their vehicle with firearms keeping the inquisitive crocodiles at bay while we winched the ambulance out of the river. We finally reached the scene and discovered a female with a spinal fracture and others with simple fractures and bruising. Attempts were made to evacuate by the Flying Doctor but no suitable airstrip was nearby. A lengthy road trip back to Kununurra was the only option, arriving at 1 am the next morning. The injured woman was flown out of Kununurra with a C2 spine fracture. After nine weeks, and virtually attending calls as a single responder, I am of the opinion that the Community Remote Paramedic model is flawed and does not work well in extremely remote areas like the Kimberley region of Western Australia. The expectations of the organisation and the community are that, as the only paramedic within the community and region, you are expected to be available 24/7 while attempting to take adequate down time to battle fatigue. I believe that it is a greater expectation to rely on volunteer staffing and support to provide a frontline paramedical service in an area as remote as the Kimberley region, knowing that many calls are high acuity and potentially time consuming. I can say that the experience I gained, the sights I saw, and the types of calls I attended, would be hard matched by any officer at any station at any location in the country. Postcards from Kununurra 24 AMBULANCE ACTIVE SPRING 2011
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Ambulance Active Spring 2011Published By Countrywide Austral

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