General News
18 December, 2024
North West’s ambulances better equipped than ever: Superintendent
Extending the scope of diagnostic and treatment options available to paramedics has helped the region.
Gone are the days when paramedics simply transported a patient to the nearest hospital, says Queensland Ambulance Service North West District Superintendent Greg Pride.
Instead, he said a recent focus on extending the scope of diagnostic and treatment options available to paramedics at first point of contact with a patient is reducing pressures on hospital emergency departments and enabling better coordination with aerial medical services across the North West.
This additional scope of medical practice has been formalised in recent weeks with the QAS now offering an internal qualification, which already has a Karumba ambo enrolled, that will enable rural and remote paramedics to increasingly take on responsibilities, such as suturing wounds or dispensing antibiotics, which have traditionally been the purview of medical doctors.
As North West residents travel vast distances for their end of year celebrations, which is also typically an extremely busy period for our emergency services, Superintendent Pride said ambulances are increasingly being equipped with the latest medical equipment that is enabling paramedics to make more accurate treatment decisions from the back of a vehicle.
Statistics released by the QAS show the most common reason paramedics are called out in the North West is simply to treat a “sick person”.
Superintendent Pride said this vague term can include anything from someone reporting stomach pain to headaches or cardiovascular troubles.
He said equipment upgrades and increased training is allowing North West paramedics to uncover the true cause of the “sickness” at the scene, which is providing more options at the frontline, including treating the patient directly without the need to be moved to a hospital – and in more serious events – to coordinate immediately with the Royal Flying Doctor Service or LifeFlight to fly someone to a larger medical facility.
Superintendent Pride said the vital minutes saved in the back of the ambulance can be the difference between life and death.
“It is a long way in the past when paramedics would whack on a bandage or band aid and load someone into the meat wagon and rush them off to the hospital,” he told North West Weekly.
“If people don’t need to be taken to the emergency department and we can avoid it, then we should be providing the right treatment for the patient rather than just do what we have traditionally always done, which is take the patient to the hospital,” he said.
“Increasingly we are looking at a new piece of equipment at a hospital and thinking about how we could get something similar installed into an ambulance.
“If we can fit it in the vehicle and it value adds to our service, then we will trial it.”
Superintendent Pride said QAS had in recent weeks begun offering an internal graduate certificate qualification in enhanced assessment and critical thinking, which is a two-year course that aims to provide frontline paramedics with further training and a theoretical underpinning that would further broaden this extended scope of medical practice.
He said a Karumba paramedic had already enrolled in the program, and he was confident others would follow suit.
“I would love all of our stations in the North West region to have a paramedic who is qualified in this course,” he said.
“This course allows our paramedics to diagnose more complex patients and potentially implement some treatment and care plans that paramedics normally can’t do.
“Whether it be suturing a wound, dispensing antibiotics or even removing a fish hook – these are more hospital-based practices that are beyond the scope of a paramedic, but this qualification is seeking to address that.
“It will allow us to really dive into the complexities of a patient – increasingly we are finding our patients have comorbidities such as high blood pressure or diabetes – so in areas such as Doomadgee or Mornington Island where the health service does not have a huge footprint or resources, if we have paramedics out there who can provide more treatment options, then it is better for the community.
“And if we can manage them well, then we don’t need to fly them out or fill up the small rural hospitals.”