Ambulance Welcomes Health Committee Report

July 8, 2008

Wellington Free Ambulance Welcomes Health Committee Report

"Treating patients in their homes if their condition or injuries are not life threatening is excellent, and should be given further consideration. It could save considerable costs and a lot of unnecessary stress for patients," John Britton, the

Chief Executive for the Wellington Free Ambulance Service said in response to the release of the Health Select Committee report into the provision of ambulances.

"As always, the devil might be in the detail. But, while a new model of care that takes care to the patient, rather than taking the patient to care is complex and difficult, the issues are not insurmountable and are, coincidently, already under consideration by Wellington Free Ambulance," he said.

"Overall, the report has some very sensible recommendations, and we look forward to seeing if they are adopted. We are particularly keen to see double crewing, and a more sustainable funding basis implemented.

"Wellington Free Ambulance strongly agrees with the recommendations around training and registration for paramedics. Of course training is essential, and the better trained paramedics are, the more lives they will save or improve in those crucial early minutes of an emergency," he noted.

"We also support including them in under the provisions of the Health Practitioners and Competency Act."

Some words of caution were expressed though.

"There is a very fine line that will need to be traversed between agreeing on and funding common standards across the country, while allowing independent private charitable organisations, such as ours, to continue delivering to our community a standard of care that is already very high, he concluded."

ENDS

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