Docs warn of threat to ‘green light’ life-savers

Emergency responders say lack of awareness and funding mean they can’t work ‘out of the goodness of our hearts’, writes Tess Brunton.

A nationwide network of emergency doctors are warning ‘‘precarious’’ funding could put lives at risk.

Primary Response in Medical Emergencies (Prime) responders support mainly rural communities from about 75 sites but say they are already not paid for call-outs and a lack of awareness about the service could lead to its demise.

Waimate Medical Centre general practitioner Dr Sarah Creegan said Prime was ‘‘precarious at the moment’’ and what money there was went to training, other staff wages, equipment and support.

‘‘It is stupid to continue doing Prime, but we do stupid things because we are motivated, we love the work, we love the communities we live in,’’ she said.

But Creegan warned the ‘‘financial stupidity’’ of keeping the service running would leave providers with the ‘‘yawning endless reality of doing this work at a financial cost’’.

Cutting the service was a real possibility, which could mean longer waits for doctors for some, and the difference between life and death for others, she said.

The Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners president Dr Tim Molloy said all Prime providers were struggling and it existed only ‘‘out of the goodness of the hearts of people who provide the services’’.

‘‘We certainly don’t do it for money, because there is no money to speak of,’’ Molloy said.

‘‘The fact that there are so many dedicated rural doctors and nurses spread across this country meant that we are still able to provide a co-joint primary care and ambulance response to medical emergencies in rural areas.

‘‘It’s an embarrassment to many of us that the public don’t even know what Prime is and, for me, that’s a sad indictment of the state who contract us to provide these services and yet haven’t undertaken a public awareness campaign.’’

People were not aware of what green flashing lights meant or their responsibilities when they saw them on the road, he said.

The Ministry of Health bulk funds St John to provide Prime services nationwide. Ministry National Ambulance Sector Office team leader Jon Leach said national funding increased from $1.73m in the 2011/12 financial year to $1.82m in 2016/17 and funding distributed from St John to providers increased from $1.12m to $1.22m during the same period, Leach said.

However, the overall responses rose by 26 per cent, from 2610 to 3298, between 2010 and 2015.

Creegan warned there was a limit to how long Prime could continue. ‘‘It’s hard work and tiring. Nobody even knows Prime exists, so nobody would even notice people stop doing it.’’ WHILE the world worried about the ‘‘Mother of all bombs’’ and North Korea’s potential aerial threat to the Far East, New Zealand thrilled to the sound of more placid airplane antics yesterday.

Despite concerns about the weather, the RNZAF Kiwi Blue Parachute team, above, and the Yak 52 formation aerobatics team, left, were just part of a magnificent weekend at the annual Classic Fighters Omaka Airshow in Marlborough, in which more than 100 aircraft were expected to put on a show that included mock airfield attacks supported by ground theatre and pyrotechnics.

Derek Flynn

‘ We certainly don’t do it for money, because there is no money to speak of.’ DR TIM MOLLOY