The " Ambo-Doctors ".

The state government is desperate to relieve pressure on hospital emergency rooms and is toying with an idea to update the skills of ambulance crews to a new category of " Extended Care Paramedics ".
The thinking is that higher skilled paramedics could " safely asses " patients, many of whom do not need the services of the emergency room - and could be either treated by the paramedic or referred to a general practitioner.
It would be within the extended care paramedic's authority to administer simple drugs such as antibiotics and refer patients for exploratory procedures such as X-ray and ultrasound.
The idea has merit. Such paramedics would be conducting a triage function in the field but the disadvantage is that patients would be removed from the care of a qualified doctor and placed in the hands of a person with lesser qualifications. The medical profession guards it's turf ferociously - and can be expected to fight the idea tooth and nail.
Problems will arise in areas where there are few general practitioners and none who offer bulk billing. All citizens are entitled to treatment in a public hospital free of charge. It would be an outrage for a paramedic to simply dump a non-critical patient onto a GP and expect that patient to pay a bill for the service.
There is also the prospect of what could be termed " the law of diminishing returns "
where the increasing load on emergency rooms leads to the increased use of paramedics in place of doctors to try and make ends meet.
The pay scale of paramedics is less than for qualified doctors - and in this era of " doing more with less " there would be a tendency to stretch the health budget by employing more paramedics and less doctors.
There are instances where such a scheme will work if it is implemented - but there will also be disasters where the underlying ailment escapes detection due to the paramedics lack of skill - and those are the stories that make newspaper headlines.
The job of the state government is to provide a safe and reliable medical service for the citizens of this state. If this proposal is simply a means of cutting corners to reduce cost - and in the process lowering standards - then those giving it consideration should think again !