Paramedics pulled from the road, told to cover Fannie Bay Racecourse barrier trials
DARWIN city’s only paramedics have reportedly been pulled from their emergency post at Parap and sent to cover barrier trials at the racecourse, leaving the city with no nearby ambulances
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DARWIN city’s only paramedics have reportedly been pulled from their emergency post at Parap and sent to cover barrier trials at the racecourse, leaving the city with no nearby ambulances.
St John Ambulance crews were advised on Thursday they would be covering the barrier trials from 8am this morning, which would take at least 30 minutes.
Paramedics union United Voice secretary Erina Early said crews were horrified to leave the city uncovered.
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“It’s not okay to be taking paramedics off the road and putting lives at risk for people living and working in the city,” she said.
“There are still crews in Casuarina and Palmerston but it takes extra time for them to get to the city, meaning something life threatening that’s time the patient might not have.”
Ms Early said incidents like this happened regularly.
Today there is one crew stationed at Palmerston and another at Casuarina, as well as the Parap crew.
She said while the crew was at the racecourse, a Code 1 accident occurred in Marrara and patient transport vehicles had to be sent instead of an ambulance.
“That means there were no paramedics at the scene, no one with the proper training,” Ms Early said.
“St John is given a contract to provide emergency paramedic help to Territorians — being stationed at the racecourse is not part of that.
“Instead they should have had volunteers at the racecourse and not put Territorians’ lives at risk.”
But St John Ambulance NT chief executive Judith Barker said Territorians were not left unsafe.
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“One ambulance crew attended barrier trials for 30 minutes this morning,” she said.
“Meanwhile the St John Ambulance Critical Response Unit was responding from Parap Station.”
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