Page 1287 - Week 04 - Thursday, 4 May 2006
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
Ambulance service
(Question No 981)
Mr Pratt asked the Minister for Police and Emergency Services, upon notice, on 8 March 2006:
(1) How many ACT Ambulances are currently in service;
(2) Of the four ambulance vehicles that were out of service over the Christmas break, for how long and why was each of the vehicles out of service;
(3) What staff concerns were raised regarding vehicle safety;
(4) Why were these safety concerns not detected earlier and are there problems with the maintenance regime of ACT ambulances;
(5) What mileage are ACT ambulances required to reach before they are automatically replaced;
(6) Are any ACT ambulances currently in service above the required replacement age referred to in part (5); if so, (a) how many, (b) what mileage are they at and (c) why have they not been replaced;
(7) Of the six new ambulances that were promised for delivery last October, how many have been delivered to date and when were they delivered;
(8) Why have ACT ambulance vehicles that were scheduled for delivery in October been delayed significantly;
(9) Of the $7.3million funded for emergency service vehicle replacements for the next four years, how much will be allocated to ambulance replacement;
(10) Of the four ambulances on loan from Victoria, (a) for how long were they on loan, (b) how much did this cost the ACT Government and (c) are they still on loan; if so, why and how much longer are they to remain on loan.
Mr Hargreaves: The answer to the member’s question is as follows:
(1) There are 14 emergency stretcher ambulances, 2 non-emergency patient transport ambulances and 1 four-wheel drive stretcher ambulance.
(2) The stretcher ambulances were retired from service in late December 2005. The decision to retire these ambulances was taken by the Chief Officer on the basis that the ambulances had exceeded their normal operational life of 250,000 kilometres and his consideration of other factors relating to their continuing operational capacity and serviceability.
(3) Concerns were raised by several staff regarding the ambulances having exceeded their normal operational life of 250,000 kilometres and possible operational safety issues arising from the age of the vehicles.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .