South Australia’s volunteer firefighters are already dealing with an increasing number of medical emergencies and are not trained to deal with trauma, according to the head of the Country Fire Service (CFS).
Key Points:
- Task Force to Examine Firefighter Attendance During Medical Visits
- CFS boss Mark Johns has expressed concern about the plan
- Volunteers treated 1,000 medical emergencies in 12 months
CFS chief officer Mark Johns has raised concerns about a state government inquiry into whether firefighters should attend more medical calls as the SA Ambulance Service (SAAS) remains under pressure growing up.
Premier Peter Malinauskas today launched a taskforce to look into the concept, after a 47-year-old father-of-two died in Plympton while waiting 40 minutes for an ambulance to arrive.
Mr Johns is not part of the task force, but Metropolitan Fire Service (MFS) chief Michael Morgan and South Australian Ambulance Service (SAAS) chief Robert Elliott will be part of the group of work, along with Health Minister Chris Picton and union representatives.
“I lead a government open to ideas about what we can do to ease the pressure [in] any way we can,” Malinauskas said.
“One such measure that is being proposed is to leverage the resources of the MFS to potentially respond in safe ways – all options are on the table.”
He said the task force had been set up “in a hurry” but other measures the government wanted to introduce, such as hiring more paramedics, would take time.
CFS attend to 1,000 medical emergencies
Johns said his firefighters were already doing that, attending about 1,000 medical incidents last year and 14 this week.
“These attend without specialist medical training and without additional mental health support,” he said.
“Also, these incidents tend to happen in small communities, where volunteers show up to an incident where they know the victim.”
CFS chief executive Mark Jones has expressed concern. (ABC News)
He said volunteers who responded to medical situations were doing so “outside the scope of their regular duties, on their own time, without pay and without the same support as paramedics”.
“Our volunteers are routinely called upon to attend traumatic events beyond the scope of their firefighting duties and these jobs are beyond the expectations of most people when they join the service,” he said.
“I have seen a significant increase in the number of SAAS support jobs that our volunteers are expected to attend.
“This is something that has come about without any formal agreement or additional support for our volunteers who do an already difficult job.”
Jones said the volunteers were trained in first aid, but there was a “huge difference” between providing CPR and addressing a patient’s underlying clinical health issues.
In a statement, a SAAS spokeswoman said the service was already working closely with fire services and police to support South Australians during a medical emergency.
“We are excited about the opportunity to work further with the SA Metropolitan Fire Service on a joint response model for the community here at [South Australia]and we look forward to growing the program over time,” he said.
“Any initiative that supports early CPR and early defibrillation can save lives.”