ACCIDENTS IN INDUSTRY

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27277, 18 February 1954, Page 5

ACCIDENTS IN INDUSTRY

AMBULANCE OFFICER’S COMMENT

St. John Ambulance Association drivers in Christchurch do not have to get the approval of a doctor before they remove an injured person in an ambulance, and they have not refused for this reason to move any casualties. This comment was made yesterday by the secretary of the Canterbury and West Coast centre of the St. John Ambulance Association (Mr G. B. Parkinson) on statements to the contrary reported in “The Press” on Tuesday. The council of the Canterbury Manufacturers’ Association on Monday received a letter from the District Industrial Medical Officer (Dr. A. Douglas), in which the suggestion of an emergency medical service for industrial accidents was put forward. The letter said that ambulance drivers were unwilling to take the responsibility of removing seriously-injured patients to hospital unless they had first been seen by a, doctor. During the discussion on the letter, the secretary of the association (Mr R. T. Alston) said that “on two occasions recently” ambulance workers had refused to move an injured man because they claimed they were not sufficiently experienced. The president of the association (Mr J. Bradley) said yesterday that after Monday’s meeting a discussion on these reported cases had been held with the St. John Ambulance Association authorities. “They were fully conversant with the details of the two cases mentioned,” said Mr Bradley. “The facts as reported were not in accordance with the details of the cases.”

“An assurance was given that all St John ambulance drivers were fully capable of transporting all cases of injured persons to hospital,” Mr Bradley said.