The following comments are from various ACT party candidates in response to questions from Iain MacKay, a Head Delegate from Wellington Free Ambulance on behalf of CAWU.

• Do you share the view of ambulance officers that all emergency ambulances should be staffed with two qualified ambulance officers?
• Do you believe that ambulance services muct be adequately resourced and able to comply with NZTA work time regulations?
• Do you believe that by comparison the response time requirements in NZ are too low and should be the same as other developed countries?

Comments

1) Yes all ambulances should have two officers, if not two fully qualified at least one plus a trainee to drive.

2) All officers should be able to comply with work regs, thus more paid positions need to be funded, reallocation of health budgets from admin to front line should achieve this. With a fixed maximum for admin of 5% of total health funding.

3) Response time is critical to survival rates, the current speed restrictions should be abolished and ambulance drivers obliged to attend at speed (after proper high speed driving instruction e.g. race driver training) also instant cancellation of licence for any person driving any vehicle not giving way to an ambulance enroute.

Please be advised these are my personal opinions and may vary from established party policy.

Yours Carl Freimann ACT #28 list candidate and ex firefighter.

I think fire and ambulance services in NZ are complimentary frontline service activities that should be contracted out professionally to private enterprise, regulated by one health authority in a similar way to the reserve bank with one Governor. This one health authority would replace all existing District Health Boards. Remember, we are a country of 4.5 million people (one third the size of Beijing city).

The current ambulance and fire services nationwide are piece meal, fragmented, under staffed and under funded in the majority of regions but still expected to provide a superior service 24/7. It is wrong to have one staff member attending an accident for obvious reasons but not sure if both need to be fully trained (maybe a trainee as a minimum?).

Some fire brigades in rural areas are expected to operate outside the Act they governed by which is both risky and unnecessary. When something goes wrong you can bet the government of the day will hang the unfortunates out to dry and hide behind the law.

Regards
Kevin Campbell
ACT NEW ZEALAND

Answer: I believe that each Ambulance is staffed with what is reasonably required to deal with the stated emergency. This should go on a case by case issue, there is no use to send two to minor emergencies if it is not required.

Question 2)
Do you believe that ambulance services muct be adequately resourced and able to comply with NZTA work time regulations?

Answer: A very open ended question! All Ambulances should be adequately resourced if they are to operate or what's the use of having them in the first place. 5 1/2 hours for a daily drive shift should be moved to 6 hours then overtime should be negotiated with the individual and management, Commonsense should prevail, as you cannot have a one size fits all when it comes to unexpected emergencies.

Question 3)
Do you believe that by comparison the response time requirements in NZ are too low and should be the same as other developed countries?

Answer: It seems that NZ is accepting mediocrity by having such low standards. NZ is a developed nation and should be the same if not strive to be better than other nations. Nobody should accept an average service and efforts to improve these requirements should be part of the job.

From Clint Heine

I am attaching our health policy for you to view.

Question One.
Two crew should go to an emergency if at all possible.
For safety, lifting and other commonsense reasons.

Questions two.
Yes they should be. But taking into account human compassion for our fellow men - if working outside those limits saved a life it would be worth the extra effort.

Question three.
The shorter the response time the better for all concerned

Keep up the great work you are doing.

Sometimes we have to put others needs first and a little discomfit may be necessary to care for our fellow man. I agree though we need better health services.

Kind regards Beryl Good
ACT candidate Rodney Electorate