Ambulance Service Is Criticised.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18888, 14 October 1929, Page 1

Ambulance Service Is Criticised.

PATIENT HAD TO BE LEFT WHILST DOCTOR GAVE GUARANTEE

Strong complaint of the tard J ness of the ambulance in arriving at the scene of an accident near Amberley last evening are made by the medical man and others who were in attendance. The accident happened at 9.20 p.m., the ambulance was rung for before 10 o’clock, but did not arrive until after 1 a.m.

“ When the ambulance did arrive it had no attendant, and no one who could do anything for the injured man,” said one man. “ The whole thing is a disgrace.” A motorist, who arrived on the spot shortly after the accident stated that he drove immediately to Amberley and after some difficulty in locating a telephone, rang for an ambulance. He was told, he says, that the ambulance would be sent out imme , diately. He then went back to the scene of the accident and with the doctor tried to make the injured man comfortable. The man, who had a compound fracture of the leg, was in great pain.

The night was bitterly cold and at intervals a light mist fell. There was no stretcher available and the man was stretched out on the road with a motorcar seat as a pillow.

At 11.30 o’clock the ambulance had not arrived and a further message was sent to the ambulance. They were then told, it is stated, that the ambulance had not yet left Christchurch as the scene of the accident was outside the 7£ mile radius. The doctor had to leave his patient and drive two miles into Amberley to give a guarantee that he would pay for the ambulance, before it was sent out. In the meantime a stretcher bed was procured from the hotel and on this the injured man was carried into Amberley, where he was kept at the hbtel until the ambulance arrived. The injured man was admitted to the Christchurch Hospital at 2.40 a.m. AMBULANCE IS NOT MEANT tfOR COUNTRY USE, SAYS MR TRELEAVEN. “The ambulances are not intended for country use,” said Mr C. J. Tre■eaven. secretary of the St John Ambulance Association, when questioned regarding the Amberley complaint this morning. “Their upkeep is paid for by Christchurch and suburbs, and if the country districts want the use of them let them contribute to their upkeep “We have only two ambulances and they are rapidly . becoming worn out,” he said. “It is these long country runs that knock them about. The garage people are acting under instructions in not sending it out without a guarantee, though it is not so much this we are worried about as the damage to the ambulance.” The association had had to send the ambulance so many times into the country without being paid for it that they now insisted on the guarantee. _ The service was intended to supply the needs of the city, and it was pos sible that a serious accident might happen here whilst the ambulance was far out in the country. The association made no stipulation regarding a guarantee inside the city or suburbs.