Drakesbrook Despatch Newsletter December 2011
Article Date: 29th November, 2011 | 181 Views | 0 Comment(s)
Well it's that time again! The Festive Season is upon us and sadly it is one of our busiest times of the year.
Boring stuff first.... Statistics as at 31 October 2011.. In total with callouts, transfers, public duties and general running of the sub centre we have given 2495 hours to the community. There were approximately 300 calls in the Waroona area this year but we were only able to answer 50% of those due to low personnel numbers. Of the 150 that we did, it was broken down into 764 hours of emergency calls and 80 hours in patient transports. The remainder of the hours were public duties, training and general duties at the sub centre. The other 150 calls were attended to by Harvey (50) and Pinjarra (100). Our thanks goes to the volunteer crews from Harvey and the Paramedic/Vollie crews from Pinjarra for their support.
We have had six new recruits for this year.... Five have completed their Primary Ambulance Care and we have Jenny McNamara who is currently doing her three months of observation as well as having mentoring sessions during this time. Having five more qualified ambulance officers will certainly take the load off the senior members of the sub centre (and by that I don't mean senior in age either).
Some of our exploits have been covered in the monthly articles in the Drakesbrook Despatch and we are hoping to raise our presence in the community even more over the next 12 months so make sure you watch this space.
Bridgetown Sub Centre kindly donated to us a Mark V Mercedes Ambulance which is now our second priority vehicle. Sadly it's the end of an era at Waroona with the last Ford Ambulance in the process of being sold as we speak. It's sad to see her go but she will still be doing ambulance work just not as a priority vehicle. I personally will miss the grunt and power of the V8 turbo diesel engine and the odd little personality traits that the old girl has but I'm sure we will see her around occasionally.
On behalf of the ambulance officers, I would like to thank the Waroona, Yarloop and Harvey Police for their support over the last twelve months. Without them we would not have been able to complete some, at times, very volatile jobs. One thing we have learnt in the last few weeks is if you want to see how fast a Police Officer can move, then get your patient to tell them they are going to be sick (isn't that right Superstar?). I wondered what the fingernail marks were on the roof of the ambulance... Now I know!
Our thanks also go to the local Volunteer Fire Brigade who have thankfully not had to help us too much this year. Without the support of the Police and Fire Brigade, our jobs would be a lot more difficult in some of the situations that we encounter...
Finally but not at all least and it doesn't seem to be enough, but a very warm hearted thank you to our family and friends who put up with us disappearing at all hours of the day or night and not knowing when we are going to return. They are there when we need to get stuff off our chest and they know when not to push and leave us alone until we are ready to talk. Without them we couldn't do what we do and keep going. So big hugs to all of you from all of us.
To the members of this wonderful community and your families, have a joyous, healthy festive season. Please don't take any risks (it's just not worth it) and help to make our Ambos, Police and Fire Brigade's festive season a quiet one!
Drive safe, stay safe!!!!
Judy Chalmers
AAC Volunteer
