AMBULANCE REPORT

Katikati ambulance crews attended 32 incidents last week, 16 of which were in the Katikati operational area, the remainder ranging across the territory from Bethlehem to Paengoroa as a result of the two shift swaps between Tauranga and local crews.

Twenty-three patients were transported to medical facilities, seven were treated at home, and on two occasions the ambulance was not required.

City crews responded to three calls in our area and a PRIME (Primary Response in Medical Emergencies) doctor attended one call.

The PRIME service is a jointly commissioned project funded by the Minisry of Health and ACC, and administered by St John. The PRIME service utilises the skills of specially trained rural GPs in areas to support the ambulance service where response times for assistance could be significant, or where additional medical skills would assist with the patients condition.

As a former chief executive of the well-known children’s charity Make-A-Wish, Coromandel MP Scott Simpson abseiled down a 17-storey building on Auckland’s Queen St to raise money for their wish granting programme. He said, “I’d been told the first metre would be the scariest and it was!”