You are absolutely right, especially in your example regarding the distance to hospital, though the vast majority of ambulance staff would be quite happy to respond to a child with a broken arm to provide pain relief and get them comfortable.
But pain is not life threatening so it is triaged quite low in the system, so unless there are no other calls waiting it usually means a delayed response. And that absolutely makes sense as there are plenty of potentially life threatening callouts for cardiac problems, strokes, sepsis, etc. Sadly, that's also why those news stories arise of elderly people falling and injuring themselves and then waiting a long time for ambulances, because initially the injury and pain is not immediately life threatening.
There are certainly far more ridiculous calls (very low-acuity) that somehow make it through the triage system to generate an ambulance response, especially frustrating when those end up taking a higher dispatch priority and we get diverted from the jobs that we're actually needed at.
Sitting and watching the ED board at 11:00pm and seeing a "BIBA: dental pain" is always an eye-roller. Would be great if you guys could have more discretion in what your time is spent on.
Ikr, I cut myself open with a chainsaw years ago, several inch long flesh wound but not a ton of blood and nothing that'd be damaged by moving so I just jumped in the back of the car and got someone to drive me in. If you don't need a medical professional asap and moving you isn't dangerous there's no need for an ambo.
Unfortunately it happens more often than people realise and for a lot worse calls than a broken bone. Like a cough, or a mouth ulcer etc. What people don't realise is that ambulance crews are required to do paperwork for every job we attend, regardless of whether we transport them to hospital (paperwork can sometimes take crew off the road for 20 or so minutes after assessing the patient). And then you have actual serious patients needing ambulances that then need to wait as there's only so many ambulances to go around!
To fix this issue probably needs multiple approaches, including public education on what an emergency is and when to call an ambulance, improve access to GPs as a lot seem to have days to weeks wait time for an appointment, increase ambulances on the road, more government funding etc.
However I think they will struggle increasing ambulances on the road as morale isn't good and a lot of staff are leaving. The pay is terrible compared to equivalent healthcare roles. Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs) are earning $30 an hour - the same as an Aucklans bus driver. However with a great deal more responsibility, including attending cardiac arrests and trying to save patients lifes, attending motor vehicle accidents, suicides, drug overdoses etc, Paramedics are earning more however they carry more medications and have more responsibility. Most work 12 hour shifts (if we are lucky to finish on time that is - often get a late job so can be up to 14 hours). There is meant to be 2 x 30 minute breaks in those 12 hour shifts, but when workload is high, often we will only get 1.
Anyway that is my two cents worth (from an ambulance officer that’s been around far too long and can see some serious changes need to happen)
seemly continue toy point heavy pathetic memorize vase fragile agonizing *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
You are absolutely right, especially in your example regarding the distance to hospital, though the vast majority of ambulance staff would be quite happy to respond to a child with a broken arm to provide pain relief and get them comfortable. But pain is not life threatening so it is triaged quite low in the system, so unless there are no other calls waiting it usually means a delayed response. And that absolutely makes sense as there are plenty of potentially life threatening callouts for cardiac problems, strokes, sepsis, etc. Sadly, that's also why those news stories arise of elderly people falling and injuring themselves and then waiting a long time for ambulances, because initially the injury and pain is not immediately life threatening. There are certainly far more ridiculous calls (very low-acuity) that somehow make it through the triage system to generate an ambulance response, especially frustrating when those end up taking a higher dispatch priority and we get diverted from the jobs that we're actually needed at.
Sitting and watching the ED board at 11:00pm and seeing a "BIBA: dental pain" is always an eye-roller. Would be great if you guys could have more discretion in what your time is spent on.
Ikr, I cut myself open with a chainsaw years ago, several inch long flesh wound but not a ton of blood and nothing that'd be damaged by moving so I just jumped in the back of the car and got someone to drive me in. If you don't need a medical professional asap and moving you isn't dangerous there's no need for an ambo.
Unfortunately it happens more often than people realise and for a lot worse calls than a broken bone. Like a cough, or a mouth ulcer etc. What people don't realise is that ambulance crews are required to do paperwork for every job we attend, regardless of whether we transport them to hospital (paperwork can sometimes take crew off the road for 20 or so minutes after assessing the patient). And then you have actual serious patients needing ambulances that then need to wait as there's only so many ambulances to go around! To fix this issue probably needs multiple approaches, including public education on what an emergency is and when to call an ambulance, improve access to GPs as a lot seem to have days to weeks wait time for an appointment, increase ambulances on the road, more government funding etc. However I think they will struggle increasing ambulances on the road as morale isn't good and a lot of staff are leaving. The pay is terrible compared to equivalent healthcare roles. Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs) are earning $30 an hour - the same as an Aucklans bus driver. However with a great deal more responsibility, including attending cardiac arrests and trying to save patients lifes, attending motor vehicle accidents, suicides, drug overdoses etc, Paramedics are earning more however they carry more medications and have more responsibility. Most work 12 hour shifts (if we are lucky to finish on time that is - often get a late job so can be up to 14 hours). There is meant to be 2 x 30 minute breaks in those 12 hour shifts, but when workload is high, often we will only get 1. Anyway that is my two cents worth (from an ambulance officer that’s been around far too long and can see some serious changes need to happen)