Page 347 - Week 01 - Thursday, 9 December 2004

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(2) When the SRU is despatched are there ever times where a stretcher ambulance with two officers are available and could be despatched instead; if so, why is an SRU despatched before a two person unit;

(3) Will the Government consider a change in policy direction regarding SRUs and ensure they are only despatched when another two person response unit is not available; if not, why not;

(4) Will the Government consider increasing the number of two person ambulance response units and eliminating SRUs altogether; if not, why not.

Mr Hargreaves: The answer to the member’s question is as follows:

(1) Single Response Units dispatched:

(a) 2002-03 = 1783 responses

(b) 2003-04 = 1866 responses

(2) When a SRU is the closest, most appropriate resource, it will be dispatched to an incident. A stretcher ambulance is also dispatched to support the SRU and provide patient transport to hospital. Should the paramedic in the SRU determine that the patient does not require transport prior to the arrival of the stretcher ambulance, then it can be cancelled at their request.

(3) At this stage the government will not consider a change in policy direction on SRUs as they are an important component of support to the overall emergency response capacity of the ACT Ambulance Service. An operational trial of SRU deployment strategies to identify opportunities for improvement in the approach of this service has been announced recently, and we are awaiting the outcome of the proposed trial before making any further decisions.

(4) We are awaiting on the outcome of the proposed trial before making any further decisions.

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