Paramedics double up for safety

‘The rationale is for the safety of our staff and the safety of our patients.’ Andrew Bos, Wellington Free Ambulance’s executive manager of service delivery

WELLINGTON Free Ambulance has confirmed 37 ‘‘incidents’’ this year of patient bad behaviour targeting their paramedics, and says double-crewing is necessary to protect its staff.

Their battered St John ambulance counterparts have complained they are fed up with being assaulted and verbally abused by patients.

A spike in physical assaults has prompted St John’s bosses to start regularly pressing charges against those who attack their staff.

The latest incident last Friday ended with a paramedic suffering broken ribs and bad bruising after he was assaulted by a man in Hastings.

The New Zealand Ambulance Association chairman has also said assaults on paramedics had increased nationwide in recent years, blaming the violence on patient intoxication, as well as frustration over waiting times.

Andrew Bos, Wellington Free’s executive manager of service delivery, said that verbal abuse and physical assaults were an inherent risk of paramedics’ work, and staff were trained to deal with it.

He said there had been 37 incidents against paramedics recorded this year, with 18 linked to ‘‘patient attitude or behaviour’’.

The rest were linked to the circumstances the patient was in, Bos said.

He would not give examples of the incidents, but explained mental health and head trauma emergencies sometimes led to disorder.

The ambulance service would ‘‘definitely’’ prosecute if paramedics were abused, he said – although none of the incidents this year had been very serious.

Wellington Free had ‘‘doublecrewed’’ for some years, an approach that is not yet status quo for New Zealand’s ambulance industry.

With a double-crewed ambulance, its paramedics could look out for each other and also start treatment to get patients to hospital in the minimal amount of time, Bos said. ‘‘The rationale is for the safety of our staff and the safety of our patients.’’

Wellington Free, which covers the capital, Hutt Valley, Kapiti Coast up to Waikanae, and parts of Wairarapa, received about 50,000 emergency calls annually.

In 2008, a select committee inquiry into the provision of the country’s ambulance services found almost 70 per cent of emergency callouts in some areas were responded to by a single-crewed ambulance.

Patients had died due to waiting time delays and, in some cases, their family members had been called upon to drive ambulances so the lone paramedic could work on the patient, the inquiry found.

The report called for mandatory double-crewing nationwide. However, a 2008 government framework introduced in response to the report sidestepped that recommendation.

Bos said not all ambulance services in New Zealand had the means to double-crew. Wellington Free’s policy relied upon community funding and charitable donations.