THE FREE AMBULANCE

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 50, 27 August 1930, Page 11

THE FREE AMBULANCE

THREE YEARS' SERVICE

A USEFUL WORK

After three years' service, in the course of which ■Wellington has come toappreciate highly its efficient emergency work, the Wellington Tree Ambulance has reached a strength of seven beautifully appointed ears and eight drivers, each of whom is also a highly qualified first aid expert. Th« service is not limited to Wellingtoa city. It ./is not unusual for the ambulance to go to Paraparaumu and Otaki. An illuminating contrast with • th» j facilities of three years ago was pro-, viaed by an Upper Hutt patient, who was brought in to th© Public Hospital' a few days since. "This used to.cost me £3," he said, "and I had to trust1 myself to a casual driver and a badlyequipped ambulance."

The ambulance service, initiated, through the agency of Mr. C. J. B. Norwood when he was Mayor, as the result of what he had seen in Queensland, has been so successful that in. the opinion of the superintendent (Mr. F. Roffe) the system is bound to extend to other centres. He hopes that New Zealand will be divided into district* under an Ambulance Act, each district being served as Wellington is being served now. Pew people who see the smart and well-equipped ambulance cars dash past on some errand of mercyj have an adequate idea of what that service comprises. The prompt appearance of the ambulance at some street, accident has brought in more than one appreciative cheque. "I could have sworn that your ambulance was waifc ing for the accident," said one aston-' ished witness, who sent a gift of twof guineas to show his appreciation of th» swift attendance of the ambulance at a certain accident. -

Everybody knows by now how qaiekly the ambulance appears on the scene after any street accident. But do they know the other work of the service!, Regularly the free ambulance transfers patients from their homes to the hospitals, private, maternity, and public, and where necessary, carries them home again; and from hospitals to specialists for X-ray and other special treatment*; Th© transport of maternity cases ■•■■•it/ part of its regular routine. A generous*' interpretation of its duties is that the* ambulance will even meet patients arriving by train in Wellington front any town or city in the North Island. and transfer them to their, home, hbs? pital, or to the various ferries, seeing; them comfortably' settled in their;, berths on board, while patients arriyi ing in Wellington from the South!, Island will be met and conveyed either to the. train or if in the Wellington, dis-1 trie.t, to home or hospital. ;'.' The fact that this extensive work i* being carried on without any fee being charged—the cost of upkeep being coiir tributed to by voluntary subscriptions' and effort —is one of the outstanding features in this .great public service^ It is gratifying to note the generous response from 'the public which enables" it to keep abreast of expenses and is" a powerful indication of the high.esteem in which the activities of the Wellington city ambulance is held by; the residents of the city and distrie*-;