St John Ambulance NT reaches ‘critical failure point’ during unique demand for paramedic

ABC NEWS (Australia)

The St John Ambulance Service in the Northern Territory says it reached a critical failure point oversight, as it was forced to abandon more than 40 per cent of Triple Zero calls across Darwin and Palmerston. The service says while no one died as a result, the first time it happened St John declared Operation Capacity White which means it could not meet the demands for the service with a high chance of harm for patients or staff.

Transcript

00:02The Territory's first responders, St John Paramedics, overnight found themselves unable

00:07to respond, with 140 calls coming in around the same time.

00:12Last night was an extraordinary event, with a very large number of calls coming in after

00:16midnight.

00:17Between midnight and 7am, more than 60 000 calls were abandoned, 14 life-threatening

00:23jobs were left waiting up to an hour and a half, including one for five hours.

00:28And while no one died, one patient stopped breathing.

00:32We have five ambulances in Darwin and Palmerston, so when you receive that many calls and have

00:38that many priority one cases, it's devastating for just the call centre to be able to stay

00:44on the line and talk someone through that emergency, but know that it's going to take hours before

00:48an ambulance can arrive.

00:5015 second priority patients were left waiting well beyond the half an hour timeframe set by

00:56national standards.

00:56One person was left pending for more than four hours.

01:00So these are major structural problems that we need to fix in the Northern Territory to

01:06ensure Territorians get a fabulous service, which they really do deserve.

01:10Putting further pressure on the service at the same time in Alice Springs, a code red was

01:14enacted after one crew was assaulted.

01:17In Darwin, volunteers have been called in to drive ambulances, while paramedics help patients.

01:22The ambulance service is urging for the public to reconsider if their situation is an emergency.

01:28The organisation instead pleading for people to call Health Direct, visit their GP or drive

01:33themselves to hospital if they're able to.

01:35You're experiencing chest pain?

01:37Please call us.

01:38You're involved in a vehicle accident?

01:40Please call us.

01:41If you fracture your arm, your leg along those lines, please call us.

01:46What we don't want to see is people calling us for a toothache at two in the morning, a stubbed

01:51tow, a taxi ride to hospital.

01:54In response to the service declaring operational capacity white, the Territory's health minister

02:00says extra resources and staff have been provided to St John to address the current strain,

02:05and that the government's committed to addressing growing demand.

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