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]]> Ambulance Alarm BellsSunday, 30 March 2008 ]]>
Alarm bells are being rung by a group of local residents on ambulance services for Bundeena Maianbar. Fill in the Survey to give your feedback.
The views are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Bundeena Info.
By Tamsin Clarke
UNEQUAL TREATMENT OF BUNDEENA & MAIANBAR RESIDENTS MUST END! AMULANCE SERVICE DEPENDS ON KINDNESS OF AMBULANCE OFFICER VOLUNTEERS
The time taken getting to hospital can be crucial. In the case of a heart attack:
Statistics show that reaching a patient in under five minutes doubles their chances of survival …,” Health and Safety Union Hunter president Peter Rumball said (Sydney Morning Herald, 9 March 2008). “If we cannot get ambulances to people then their lives are being put at risk,” he said.
A neurologist says that if he can get to a stroke victim within 3 hours he can totally reverse the effects of a stroke. The problem is getting a stroke recognized, diagnosed, and then getting the patient medically cared for within 3 hours.
Then there are snake and spider bites, hemorrhages – many emergencies require an immediate response.
Do you feel secure when you see Bundeena’s ambulances parked in town, knowing that if any serious accident or health problem strikes your family there will be a crew of trained paramedics present in Bundeena to stabilise you (or your family member) and look after you while you are taken to the nearest hospital? Think again.
While there is a dedicated ambulance located in Bundeena, there is no ambulance station and no crew for the ambulance. Ambulances are sent to Bundeena and Maianbar from Hurstville, Caringbah and Engadine.
The only part-time crew in Bundeena and Maianbar is provided through the generous volunteering of already overworked ambulance officers living here who work at ambulance stations in other suburbs. That is, they might volunteer to be on call when they are not working elsewhere on their normal shifts. Volunteer officers came to the rescue of our residents and Park users 200 times in the past year.
When they have volunteered to be on call, the officers are required to service not only Bundeena and Maianbar, but also Engadine – and any emergency which occurs anywhere in the Royal National Park. Local MP Paul McLeay noted (Hansard, 14 May 2004) on the occasion of the Park’s 125th anniversary that over 2.5 million Sydneysiders and tourists use the Park every year. The volunteer officers’ services are provided to the detriment of their own family and personal obligations, their relaxation time, and their own well-being. The roster of on call volunteers does not and cannot cover 24 hours 7 days per week and so there are regularly periods where there is no on call ambulance service available out of Bundeena. Volunteer officers are aware of more than 30 incidents in the last year where there was no crew available in Bundeena to respond to a call -out. 
In Bundeena, Maianbar and the National Park (unless one is very lucky to catch the volunteer crew already in town) ambulances arrive not in 5 or 10 minutes, nor within the NSW Ambulance recommended response time of 16 minutes, but sometimes up to two hours after being called out.
Horrifying stories of medical emergencies becoming life-theatening by reason of extensive delays in ambulance response times, or because there was no service available and panicked and/or injured residents had to drive themselves and their families for 40 minutes to the nearest medical help, are increasingly common in these suburbs and the Park. At the same time, there are wonderful and inspiring stories about residents saved by our local volunteers.
Many of the negative stories do not make it into the ambulance call-out statistics because no records are kept of situations where, in desperation, people do not wait for an ambulance. (This article is NOT advocating driving yourself in a medical emergency – this puts both yourself and others at further risk of injury).
The lack of an ambulance station and full time crew means that usually an ambulance has to come into Bundeena from suburbs as far away as Caringbah. This results in substantially longer time frames for treatment of emergency cases – at least double the current 16-minute target response time for ambulances mentioned in the Herald article.
It also means substantially worse medical outcomes for Bundeena and Maianbar residents than for residents of other Sydney suburbs. To achieve the target response time – or anything like it – requires an ambulance crew located in Bundeena.
The work of our only doctor is enormously appreciated. However without proper paramedic back up it is difficult for her to expand the practice or bring in locums. It should be emphasised that at times the Ambulance Officer volunteers provide the ONLY paramedic service available in Bundeena or Maianbar.
The present situation is simply not satisfactory in metropolitan Sydney. This unequal treatment is unfair and unreasonable. It puts the life of our residents – and of Park users – at risk.
Demands on ambulance services are increasing throughout NSW due to growth in the total NSW population and an increasing rate of illness because of our ageing population. In the past two years the demand for emergency “life threatening” responses by ambulances increased by 19.4 per cent. The demand has increased in Sutherland Shire and in Bundeena/ Maianbar/ the Park at a much greater rate.
Bundeena and Maianbar have a slightly higher proportion of elderly residents than the average. Indeed, one of the ambulance officers currently living in Bundeena is coming up for retirement. His retirement will stretch the services provided by the other existing volunteers to breaking point.
These issues therefore need to be dealt with urgently.
An action group is presently bringing these issues before the State Government, to demand an improvement in services for our suburbs. Could you please help them by completing and returning the survey below which will be enormously helpful in giving the group more information to support the case for proper ambulance services in Bundeena and Maianbar.
Survey
Download survey and return via email or drop off printed version at Progress Association letterbox outside news agency.
Microsoft Word version – 
ambulance-survey.doc
Adobe PDF version – 
ambulance-survey.pdf
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