Two-wheel paramedics

Games ambos plan for better access to public areas

PARAMEDICS will ride pushbikes to get to injured people at Surfers Paradise and Broadbeach during the Commonwealth Games.

The Bulletin can reveal the forward emergency planning for Queensland’s biggest event not only takes a step back to the past but also depends on knowledge gained from hosting high-risk events like Schoolies and the V8 race.

The emergency response will include specialist ambulance sedans with teams in high acuity units armed with extra bloods and ultrasounds as precaution for a mass casualty event.

Deputy Commissioner Craig Emery said one major challenge would be the festive areas where thousands of fans gather to watch big TV screens.

“We’re looking at mobility. Police are looking at motorcy- cle or bicycle access. We’ll do the same thing for those festival areas so we can have rapid response and back up our ambulances,” Mr Emery said.

“We will probably use pushbikes, particularly because we will be in the restricted areas like Cavill Mall. We’re just working that through now with police.

“It’s a pretty simple business model for us – put a paramedic with basic equipment beside the patient very quickly.

“We will have a forward command arrangement – a senior paramedic will establish a medical tent.”

The high acuity units have been trialled for 12 months with specially-trained paramedics attending car crashes and other major trauma cases, enabling patients to bypass emergency and be taken to surgery.

“It was always part of that view we wanted that leading into the Games, we wanted to bed that in early,” Commissioner Emery said.

Ambulance and police are reluctant to release details with each venue assessed on risk and response, viewed as “best to plan for the worst” which would be a mass casualty event.

Commissioner Emery said ambulances would be given emergency access at Parkwood Boulevard at the Gold Coast University Hospital.

“We know there will be some congestion. We will also pull out the lights and sirens if we have to,” he said.

Opposition health spokesman John-Paul Langbroek was concerned about the planning.

“With just under eight months to go until the Games kick off, we still don’t know how many ambulance officers will come from each region and how the regions impacted will manage.”