New Zealand firefighters signal cut to medical calls

By Jo McKenzie-McLean
The Press

NEW ZEALAND — Fire brigades are feeling the pressure of a leap in medical callouts and are warning ambulance operators their help may be cut.

There has been a 47 per cent increase in the number of medical emergencies attended by the Fire Service since 2003, with brigades around the country responding to 5000 medical callouts last year.

Medical emergency responses are in addition to vehicle crashes, other accidents and incidents where the Fire Service responds primarily in its firefighting or rescue roles.

The United Fire Brigades Association has outlined its concerns in a submission to a parliamentary select committee inquiry into the provision of ambulance services.

"Any evaluation of ambulance services should take into account this considerable contribution by firefighters, but at the same time acknowledge that for a variety of reasons response to medical calls, including St John requests, cannot be assured," the submission says.

"Ambulance operations should be geared to efficiently cater for most emergencies without reliance on a fire brigade to respond instead of, or as well as, an ambulance."

For some brigades — including Diamond Harbour, Little River and Rolleston — medical calls amount to about half their total annual turnouts.

United Fire Brigades Association chief executive John Thorn said the association was concerned the increase in the number of medical calls was putting additional pressure on brigades that were already stretched trying to respond to fire-related callouts.

He said 85% of the brigade callouts between Rolleston and Timaru were for medical, rather than fire, emergencies.

"It's starting to stretch a bit of goodwill in some areas and we don't want to lose that with ambulance because they are inadequately resourced."

Under a March 2005 memorandum of understanding, the Fire Service agreed to support St John in callouts, but had found some medical emergencies took firefighters "beyond the scope of knowledge, experience and equipment on hand at the scene", the submission says.

Firefighters may not be able to respond to a medical emergency if they had other priorities, such as a fire, or the best-qualified first-aiders were not available, it says.

Little River Fire Brigade deputy chief fire officer David Irving said the brigade often responded to medical callouts for elderly patients with heart problems or lung disorders.

As a first-response station, there was added pressure in training and funding, he said.

"Not only do we have to train as firefighters but also have to train as a first response. We used to train only three nights a month. Now we train four just to try to fit everything in. It's not what we joined for, but we found there was a big black hole in our community -- there was no service at all," he said.

"Nine years ago we attended a bad car crash and decided as a brigade we were inadequately trained to sit there for half an hour waiting for an ambulance, so we upskilled ourselves then."

The Fire Service had to raise funds for all its first-aid training, as well as medical equipment, Irving said.

"It is a burden, but we are prepared to do it for our community," he said.

St John chief executive Jaimes Wood said the collaboration between St John and the Fire Service was logical and sensible, and the Fire Service was asked to help more often, partly because it was substantially better resourced.

"A key point is that ambulance services in New Zealand are not sufficiently funded to meet the ever-increasing demand for ambulance services, driven partly by an increasing and ageing population and increases in chronic health conditions," he said.

Repeated requests to the Government for increased funding had been met with minimal increases, which had failed to meet the annual increases in ambulance demand of 6% to 8% a year, he said.

The St John submission to the select committee inquiry called for a substantial lift in government funding for ambulance services from about $75 million a year now to $150m a year by 2015, Woods said.

National Party associate health spokesman Jonathan Coleman said lives were being put at risk because volunteers were being thrown into situations for which their training did not prepare them.

"It's clear that the goodwill of brigades is being stretched to breaking point," he said.