Quit in disgust due to management and working conditions
PARAMEDICS were ready to break into a Mackay home to treat a suspected heart attack victim when they learned the emergency was actually in Brisbane.
BRISBANE, AUSTRALIA – Eric Fleissig who later quit the Queensland Ambulance Service in disgust at its management and working conditions, said he was met by a startled and confused person when he attended a Code 1 emergency call.
He said he went to an address provided by ambulance dispatchers where the resident told him he knew nothing about an emergency.
The paramedics queried the communication centre, which then realised that the street name was correct but the emergency was in the Brisbane suburb of Ashgrove and not the Mackay suburb of Andergrove.
“It happens all the time,” Mr Fleissig said.
Paramedics say the QAS hasn’t done enough to make sure the best maps and direction-finding equipment are available, or to train communications staff who know their areas.
QAS Commissioner David Melville said dispatch systems were not perfect but Queenslanders were given the best possible service regardless of where they lived.
“I’d like to think we will get it perfect, but I can’t give you a 100¬†per cent guarantee on it,” he said. “We try to give the best possible service no matter where people are.”
