Wednesday, April 25, 2007
** Nova Scotia Lifeflight medics worried for their jobs
** New Hampshire man holds medic at knifepoint
** Wireless technology used in Georgia ambulances
** Welsh Ambulance Service improves response times
CANADA NEWS
** Nova Scotia’s Lifeflight paramedics are concerned a change in management could leave them without jobs. The Chronicle Herald (David Jackson/April 24) quoted Health Department spokesman Kim Silver as saying the new boss would determine staffing. Liberal MLA Dave Wilson said he was uncertain why a change was taking place at all. Lifeflight is currently overseen by Canadian Helicopters, Ltd, the Queen Elizabeth II Health Sciences Centre and the Health Department’s Emergency Health Services division.
UNITED STATES NEWS
** Puckett EMS in Georgia is pioneering a cognitive wireless system making ambulances secure local area networks. That is the word from a press release put out by the Business Wire (April 24) which said the In Motion’s onBoard(TM) Mobile Gateway and onBoard(TM) Mobility Manager service allow dispatchers to, among other things, locate the closest ambulance for calls. In addition, the technology provides medics with immediate access to treatment options, protocols, patient medical histories and prescription info. Soon to include an inventory tracker as well, the system also speeds patient billing through real time communications between medics and accounting.
** A Newmarket, New Hampshire man has been charged with criminal threatening after holding a Portsmouth paramedic at knifepoint Tuesday. Seacoast Online (Adam Leach/April 24) said the incident, which began around 2:30 a.m., played out with James Fuller, 39, pulling his stunt while awaiting admission to the hospital’s mental health center. First slitting his wrists, Fuller then threatened to kill the paramedic by holding the knife to his chest. He was eventually subdued after police arrived. Along with the threatening charge, he also faces tags for both simple assualt and resisting arrest.
UNITED KINGDOM NEWS
** Morale is apparently up at the Welsh Ambulance Service, after recent response time stats showed the organization hitting its eight minute 999 target 74.8 per cent of the time. The South Wales Echo (Katie Norman/April 24) said the figure exceeds that set by the National Assembly by over 14 per cent. Service chief executive Alan Murray, who took the helm eight months ago, is being praised for the improvement. Murray has worked EMS all over the world in places such as the US, Canada, India, New Zealand and the Middle East.
