Alarm, anger over ambulance delays
A retired paramedic and nurse is angry an injured man who had fallen had to wait four hours for an ambulance during the day in Hāwera. Sheryl Howardson, who is known as Millie, administered first aid and waited with the man, after being called to help by his friend who found him. “I was pretty distressed after that. He is a lovely man who has done a lot for his community. He didn’t deserve that. “I think it’s appalling that anybody, no matter who you are, has to wait that long when you have had a significant fall.” Hato Hone St John area operations manager for Taranaki, Megan Stewart, said the organisation took patient welfare seriously and always aimed to respond as soon as possible. However, she said immediately life-threatening calls were given the highest priority. “When demand for ambulance services is high, some patients who do not have an immediately life-threatening condition may wait longer for an ambulance,” she said. “We acknowledge this is not ideal and apologise for any distress this may cause to patients and those caring for them.” But Howardson, who spent 21 years as a paramedic and 30 years nursing at Hāwera Hospital, said the point was that the district needed more ambulances and paramedics. Although she retired two years ago, she had two well-stocked first aid kits because she was often called to help people who knew she had medical experience. On February 19, she’d just returned home from a morning playing croquet when she was called to help the man, who lived in her neighbourhood. The injured man was trapped on the floor near his shower. “This guy and I tried to get him out, but we couldn’t shift him,” she said. The man was in a lot of pain, had hit his head in the fall and needed to go to hospital, she said. “I rang the ambulance about 1.15pm and explained the situation, and was told they would get there when they could.” It was the first of four calls she made. After about three-and-a-half hours, a first responder from St John arrived, followed half an hour later by an ambulance, and he was taken to hospital. “Two ambos came and thanked us for doing what we did. They were really busy that day, they had some very sick patients.” She said she was concerned that South Taranaki was often left without ambulance cover and would like to see a review of the way ambulances are prioritised and dispatched. “This is not an exception, it’s an ongoing issue. The ground floor is under-resourced. “They need to re-look at the North Taranaki jobs they are sending South Taranaki people to,” she said. In Taranaki, Hato Hone St John had six emergency ambulances, two rapid response vehicles (one crewed by a critical care paramedic, the other by an extended care paramedic), and two operational managers during the day. “During night shifts, we have four emergency ambulances and one rapid response vehicle. We also have volunteercrewed first response units in Ōpunake and Urenui,” Stewart said. As with other communities around the motu, all ambulances in Taranaki worked as part of a network, supported by emergency vehicles from surrounding areas and partner agencies such as Fire and Emergency New Zealand, air ambulance helicopters, and Primary Response in Medical Emergencies (PRIME) doctors and nurses. Hato Hone St John used an internationally-accredited system to triage patients to determine their priority level and the response required, and had several measures to manage the impact of the demand on the emergency ambulance service, Stewart said. “If a patient is assessed as needing an ambulance urgently, Hato Hone St John will send one as soon as possible. Our ambulance communications teams will carry out welfare checks on patients awaiting an ambulance response.”