Dicing with death !

The citizens of New South Wales have every reason to be worried. All is not well within this state's ambulance service and we are losing trained personnel faster than recruits can replace them.

" The Ambos " - as they are affectionately called - are the first - and sometimes the last - line of assistance when medical disaster strikes.
Theoretically they give first aid and provide speedy transport to the nearest emergency room, where a Triage nurse takes over and emergency room doctors and specialists give expert and immediate attention.

Unfortunately it doesn't often happen that way. The hospital emergency rooms are under staffed and lacking backup beds and as a result declare " Situation Red " - accepting only life threatening patients. As a result a patient with serious medical problems can spend hours in an ambulance in the hospital car park - waiting for the backlog to clear - and relying solely on the skills of those marvellous Ambos to treat their condition.

The Ambos are overworked and under paid. They have demanded an enquiry into the facilities available and this was promised by Health Minister Reba Meagher. What was delivered - by the Performance Review Unit - was something inferior designed to fob off their grievances but look good to the public.

The government has offered a meagre pay offer of 4% - refusing to recognise that these are highly skilled medical professionals. This has angered the Health Services Union ( HSU ) who have setup a blog site which has attracted over a thousand contributions detailing the skill required and the frustrations encountered by the Ambos simply doing their jobs.

There are a lot of things that governments are responsible for. Keeping the traffic flowing. Running a decent train service. Providing an adequate education system, Funding public libraries - and many, many more.

But surely the most important government function is to deliver first rate health care to the citizens of this state. All others pale into significance beside keeping the citizenry alive and in good health.

The hospitals are a disgraceful mess. The least the government can do is to maintain troop numbers and morale within the ambulance service. At present this is the only facility delivering immediate medical help. Without it - we are literally dicing with death !