Reason of Choosing
There are various kinds of health services being run by an array of government and nongovernment organizations across the world and respective Public Health Steering Committees usually regulate services and policies. Their roles include assessment, policy development and assurance of public health quality.
The purposes of public health has also several aspects which include prevention of epidemics and diseases; protection against environmental hazards; prevention of aggravation of injuries; promotion of healthy habits and behaviors; disaster management and assuring access and quality health care support to mass. Health Services in general work in order to alleviate the pain and sufferings of common people relating to health issues.
Various health services include monitoring and solving common health problems in aboriginal communities, diagnosis and investigation of health problems and hazards in elderly community, healthcare and awareness service of sobriety to chemically dependent people and ambulatory service (Munn-Giddings & Winter, 2013). This report focuses on a particular health service; describes the reason of choice; highlights on the history, vision, services, potential consumers, prospects and challenges pertaining to that specific health service.
The ambulatory services include transportation of patients to conveniently distant medical assistance facilities by any mode of transportation as well as ambulatory care or outpatient care provided to needy patients outside the hospital premises. The ambulatory care includes diagnosis, observation, consultation, treatment and intervention services. Ambulatory surgery is even possible in today’s era. There are several advantages of ambulatory services. These comprise of lesser need of staffing in numbers; lower need of archiving data in cabinets or increase in digital archiving of records; less expensive nature; shorter procedure time and mobility. The underlying reasons of choosing NSW Ambulance Service as an Indigenous Health Service are quite evident and prominent from the significant benefits as illustrated in the afore-mentioned text.
The first recognized and registered ambulance service in New South Wales Was named as Civil Ambulance And Transport Brigade which started to operate on first April in nineteen eighty five. The first ambulance station was a borrowed police station in the Railway square in Sydney. It had two permanent officers. Hand-held stretchers were usually used to transfer the patients. The service was dedicated to the ambient community. The first horse drawn carriage as ambulance vehicle came into picture in 1899 and the first motor car was introduced in 1912.
The common people donated both of these vehicles. Radio controlled services started to operate in 1927 and a rescue service was commenced in 1941. The training school for ambulatory services took its first step in 1961 and air ambulance service started to dominate the scene from 1967 onwards. Modern life care infrastructure and intensive care jalopies have also been introduced in 1976. 2011 has been the 25th anniversary of special casualty access team paramedics. The services are pervasive across 266 different places all over the state and the rich history and reliable service is something the NSW community is really proud of which (Ambulance.nsw.gov.au, 2017).
The fundamental vision of NSW Ambulance Service is to provide efficient, effective and quality health services in the wake of emergencies to the community of New South Wales. The mission is guided by some essential values embedded in the tradition of its staffs. These core values consist of maintenance of professional behavior, sense of accountability for the concerned service to be given, promotion of an environment that enables appropriate team work and a value of imparting admiration to its potential consumers (Schaffer et al., 2012). The key objectives of NSW Ambulance Service have been mentioned in the following section below-
- The ambulance service has to give the patients the best clinical care possible with salvation and rescue facilities. Communicating to the patients with respect is necessary.
- Work in coordination with other health organizations and emergency service agencies.
- Actively ensure community safety
- Generate support staff to conduct pre-hospital services.
- Continuous improvement of business operation through intermittent evaluation and development policies
- Ensure round the clock throughout the year all the services get provided without hassle or hindrances.
- Address the situations with special care involving aero medical service.
- Ascertain the confidentiality of the information relating to patient’s condition and identity (Curtis et al., 2012).
History
The basic responsibility of providing medical assistance in emergencies is reflected in all the services provided by NSW Ambulance Service. The procedure to call for such a service is through dialing triple zeros as a common available contact number. The paramedics who deliver the primary service are backed up by an array of other service staffs. Aero medical and Medical Retrieval Services is one of such services provided by specially trained people. This service staffs render state wide air transport from native location of the patient to the hospital and clinical care of patients. Aero medical Control Centre is accountable to maintain harmony among these services (Burns, Reid & Habig, 2013).
Helicopters address emergency scenarios like major accidents or neo-natal complications. Eleven helicopters are present in the arsenal of NSW Ambulance Service located at six specific locations and empowered with a doctor and a team of paramedics. The services are available for twenty-four hours a day. Health Emergency Management Unit comes under jurisdiction of NSW Health Ministry and personnel associated with ambulance services and they work together aiming to deal with riddles of health calamity and adequate response such as at the onset of bioterrorism (Leaning & Guha-Sapir, 2013).
A Rapid Response Team is also present within the capacity of NSW Ambulance Service. Single mobile unit of paramedics operate in urban areas. They are not located at a particular location rather they function in a region of high workload as directed by the operation center. Rapid response operations are routinely practiced across the world and it is very effective in offering early medical intervention to patients reducing response time (DeVita et al., 2017). NSW Ambulance Service has six rescue units which operate in rural regions of state. The staffs are trained in all kind of rescue operations including accidents on road track, industrial and domestic mishaps, accessing in trenches, infection in travelling and non-travelling subjects or confined edifices (Kardamanidis, Cashman & Durrheim, 2013).
They get knowledge of navigation, driving, search and rescue operations in urban areas and handling biological, chemical and radiological hazards. The rescue vehicles and personnel are well equipped with advanced technology options such as hydraulic tools, portable global positioning system, fiber optic search scope, test equipments for atmospheric parameters and necessary breathing apparatus. An ambulance station has been set up in Perisher Valley and it comes into operation during the winter season with great significance. It usually operates from June to September stretch of the year. Paramedics are well trained to work in inclement weather conditions like heavy snowfall or snowstorms with utter efficiency. There are specialized vehicles also available to deal with heavy load of snow on the roads. The Perisher Valley station has four snowmobiles like 4WD Mercedes, land cruiser with mat tracks, quad bikes and Kassbroher over snow vehicle.
Another service provided by NSW Ambulance Service is by Special Casualty Access Team or SCAT. SCAT was initiated in 1986. The paramedics of this service are well trained in scaling mountains and heights; movement in canyons, caves and mines, survival strategies in drought and other crucial survival techniques. They are enabled with the capability to accompany and protect patients in a natural calamity when the weather conditions dictate to stay put at a particular location (Burns, Reid & Habig, 2013). There is a special operations team also included in the authority of NSW Ambulance Service. They additionally give assistance to Fire Service in rural parts, Fire Brigade of NSW, Units of Police in NSW, bomb threat nullifying agency and team to handle public agitation. Special Operations Team is usually deployed in high casualty or high-risk situations, as they are one of the most elite ones. They are equipped with skills of recuing the trapped, stranded, or lost individuals and provide required medical aid at the first encounter (Wills, 2017).
Vision and Objectives
The potential consumers who avail the services extended by NSW Ambulance Service are the rural and urban population of New South Wales. It is a state in Australia having Sydney as its capital. The results of 2012census show that the new population of New South Wales is 6,917,658. The previous figure was 6,549,175 in 2006. The increase in these years is estimated to be 5.6 per cent. The survey also divulges that the local turf that has grown most is Black town. The present count of population is 301,097 having a contrast in growth from 271,712 in 2006. The increase is by 10.8 per cent. The local government area with the highest proportionate increase in New South Wales is Palerang. It grew 16.5 per cent to 14,351 people from 12,313 in 2006. This increasing multitude of population is the potential beneficiaries of the community health services provided by NSW Ambulance Service (Abs.gov.au, 2017).
The contact location for Health Emergency Management Unit, which falls under the sway of NSW Ministry of Health, is 73 Miller Street North Sydney NSW 2060. The complaints to NSW Ambulance service can be lodged at both metropolitan as well as regional offices. The contact details for metropolitan center are Locked Bag 105 Rozelle NSW 2039 and the phone number is 1800269133. The address for regional office is P.O. Box 15 Dubbo NSW 2830. There is a 000 number as has been already mentioned which is supposed to be reached in order to report any medical emergency and ask for assistance (Ambulance.nsw.gov.au, 2017).
The possible prospects may include-
- Further increase in infrastructure and services with increase in population
- Incorporation of more advanced technology in addressing acute and chronic health needs
- Implementation of more sophistication and professional attitude among staffs and support groups
- Improvement of present infrastructure
- Emphasis on more accurate coordination among agencies of health services
- Financial grants from government bodies and agencies
The challenges comprise of-
- Dealing with inclement weather conditions at certain regions of the state
- Operating during season of heavy snow fall
- Handling the new responsibility of bioterrorism
- The expensiveness of the hi-tech facilities and infrastructures
- The time period for managing the emergency health situations. (Taylor et al. 2013).
NSW Ambulance Service is undoubtedly a conglomerate of several small units specialized in getting various odd jobs done. They work in hostile work situation meeting challenges of magnanimous amount regularly to ensure the interest of public health intact. The extent of their work and stringent and challenging work environment through which the paramedics operate is inevitably commendable and inspiring in nature.
Conclusion:
Health services are exponentially more crucial as compared to other consumer services as it deals with complications of human health with a desired goal of resolution of those conditions and problems. Health Service personnel face various specific and general obstacles depending on the nature of the service in which focus has been given considering NSW Ambulance Service as a unit model. A detailed analysis suggests proper state support and government funds along with private capital in constant manner is indispensable for hassle free service and up gradation in regard of the same in this domain of health care.
References:
Abs.gov.au. (2017). 2011 Census data shows a snapshot of New South Wales. Abs.gov.au. Retrieved 6 September 2017, from https://www.abs.gov.au/websitedbs/censushome.nsf/home/nsw-130?opendocument&navpos=620
Ambulance.nsw.gov.au. (2017). NSW Ambulance – NSW Ambulance. Ambulance.nsw.gov.au. Retrieved 6 September 2017, from https://www.ambulance.nsw.gov.au/index.html
Burns, B., Reid, C., & Habig, K. (2013). Review of aeromedical intra-aortic balloon pump retrieval in New South Wales. European Journal of Emergency Medicine, 20(1), 23-26.
Burns, B., Reid, C., & Habig, K. (2013). Review of aeromedical intra-aortic balloon pump retrieval in New South Wales. European Journal of Emergency Medicine, 20(1), 23-26.
Curtis, K. A., Mitchell, R. J., Chong, S. S., Balogh, Z. J., Reed, D. J., Clark, P. T., … & McDougall, P. (2012). Injury trends and mortality in adult patients with major trauma in New South Wales. The Medical Journal of Australia, 197(4), 233-237.
DeVita, M. A., Hillman, K., Bellomo, R., Odell, M., Jones, D. A., Winters, B. D., & Lighthall, G. K. (Eds.). (2017). Textbook of rapid response systems: concept and implementation. Springer.
Kardamanidis, K., Cashman, P., & Durrheim, D. N. (2013). Travel and non-travel associated rabies post exposure treatment in New South Wales residents, Australia, 2007–2011: a cross-sectional analysis. Travel medicine and infectious disease, 11(6), 421-426.
Leaning, J., & Guha-Sapir, D. (2013). Natural disasters, armed conflict, and public health. New England journal of medicine, 369(19), 1836-1842.
Munn-Giddings, C., & Winter, R. (2013). A handbook for action research in health and social care. Routledge.
Schaffer, A., Muscatello, D., Broome, R., Corbett, S., & Smith, W. (2012). Emergency department visits, ambulance calls, and mortality associated with an exceptional heat wave in Sydney, Australia, 2011: a time-series analysis. Environmental Health, 11(1), 3.
Taylor, C. B., Curtis, K., Jan, S., & Newcombe, M. (2013). Helicopter emergency medical services (HEMS) over-triage and the financial implications for major trauma centres in NSW, Australia. BMC emergency medicine, 13(1), 11.
Wills, E. (2017). Bachelor of Paramedicine degree.
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