TAKE PUBLIC ON AMBO RIDE

THINKING outside the square could have paramedics pedalling into the past.

A plan to use bicycles demonstrates how concerned the emergency services are about traffic congestion when the Gold Coast hosts the Commonwealth Games, which experts warn will be a sign of things to come as the city’s growing population leaves infrastructure in its wake.

Apart from needing up to 300 extra ambulance officers for the duration of the Games, officials have also recognised the need to be able to find ways for paramedics to dodge around traffic jams and slip through crowded pedestrian malls.

Bike-riding emergency teams kitted with gear including ultrasound equipment will be directed from a command centre. It makes sense to reach critically injured or ill patients as quickly as possible.

But this does raise the question of how those patients are then moved to hospital.

Using two wheels instead of four to get ambulance officers to a medical emergency has been employed in the past, with varying results. Motorbike paramedics were trialled for a short time on the Gold Coast in 2003, for the same reason – traffic congestion. But the city had just two intensive care motorbike paramedics to cover the entire region from the Tweed to Coomera and into the Hinterland.

In Melbourne, an ambulance bicycle response unit was set up for the 2006 Commonwealth Games. Unlike Melbourne, a city with a traditional layout, the Gold Coast is a linear city with just two highways and a couple of arterial roads as options for running north-south. Travelling east-west can be a nightmare when the city is in gridlock.

Army field hospitals have been used for Indy and the Gold Coast 600. The city may need several of these when suburbs are blocked off from hospital access.

Using paramedics on bikes to reach acute emergency cases is the way to go in the Games hub areas, but the public also need to be educated now about options.

Importantly, drivers must stay clear of lanes marked for emergency vehicles only, or for buses and Games vehicles. They also have to know what to do when they hear ambulance sirens. At the moment some pull off the road, some mount median strips or veer into on-coming traffic, and some stop dead in the middle of their lane.