Tuesday, June 5, 2007

** Pittsburgh eyeing EMS cuts

** Australia looks to recover remains of Vietnam medic

** Former Queensland ambulance officer sentenced for sex assault

UNITED STATES NEWS

** Pittsburgh politicos are apparently looking to save money normally spent on EMS. That is the word from the Pittsburgh Tribune (Jeremy Boren/June 4) which said private company TriData has been commissioned to look for economies. The company undertook a similar scrutiny of fire services last year for $193,000. The state oversight board agreed to pay TriData an additional $74, 205 for the prehospital research. Merging the two disciplines is one likely outcome of the look-see.

AUSTRALIA NEWS

** The recovery of the remains of two Vietnam era soldiers killed in 1969 has fuelled hopes of finding a medevac crew member shot down just two years later. The AAP (Max Blenkin/June 4) quoted Veterans Affairs Minister Bruce Billson as saying the government is currently assessing whether or not to excavate the site where Lance Cpl. John Gillespie perished. Gillespie, a member of 8 Field Ambulance, died in April 1971 after his Iroquois helicopter was shot down. Witnesses saw the chopper explode, with no trace of Gillespie’s body ever found. Along with Gillespie, three other soldiers also remain missing. Meanwhile, the remains of Lance Corporal Richard Parker, 24, and Private Peter Gillson, 20, have begun the repatriation process.

** Community service was the only penalty for a former Queensland Ambulance officer who pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting a young boy. The Sunshine Coast Daily (June 4) said the unidentified Gympie man, 59, who was lauded for community participation, committed the offence in the 1980s against a 15-year-old youth. The boy, who said he thought of the man as a foster father, was staying in a trailer on the medic’s property. Along with performing fellatio on the teen while he feigned being asleep, the man also kept homosexual pornography at his home.