Monday 19 January 2009
DELLA BOSCA HAS NO SOLUTIONS TO LABOR’S BUNGLING OF RESCUE HELICOPTER SERVICES
Health Minister John Della Bosca continues to ignore problems plaguing Labor’s new rescue helicopter service that, if left unfixed, have the potential to put lives at risk, Shadow Minister for Health Jillian Skinner said today.
A number of incidents have raised concerns that the Westpac Rescue Helicopter service and the Careflight community rescue helicopter service are not being sent to emergencies, despite the fact they might be closer to the accident scene.
“John Della Bosca was alerted to this problem in October last year, and he’s done nothing to fix it,” Mrs Skinner said.
When asked by 2GB’s Ray Hadley why the closest helicopter rescue service was not sent to some emergencies, the Health Minister responded:
(22 October 2008) - John Della Bosca: “Tony Kelly and I are going to get a full debrief on this from all of the services involved and obviously we’ll be looking at the issue of the overall response.”
Here’s what the Health Minister told Ray Hadley today:
John Della Bosca: “I’ll ask the chief executive of the Ambulance service and I’ll ask Tony Kelly to talk to the police, about the protocols they developed between the ambulance and police, to make sure that Westpac and Careflight are involved in the protocols. If they haven’t been that’s unsatisfactory, I’ll make sure they have been.”
Ray Hadley: “What are you going to do if they didn’t involve them?
John Della Bosca: “Make sure they do.”
Ray Hadley: “But you told me that in October and they didn’t.”
“After three months John Della Bosca has done nothing to clarify the emergency tasking system with regards to rescue helicopter services.
“In one of the most farcical responses from a State Labor Government Minister, John Della Bosca said that if he was having a heart attack, and given the choice, he would prefer if a helicopter located further away from him was sent to try and save his life:
Ray Hadley: “You live near Avoca, if you’d had a heart attack right, there’s a doctor on board the Westpac rescue helicopter. You’ve had a heart attack, John Della Bosca’s just collapsed with a heart attack. If I gave you the choice of getting a doctor who was on the northern beaches, flying above Long Reef, or a bloke who was on Bankstown on the ground, who would you want?”
John Della Bosca: “ Well Ray if the bloke at Bankstown was able to get there almost as quickly.”
“Most right minded people would disagree with the Health Minister’s bizarre response,” Mrs Skinner said.
“The public will hope that John Della Bosca shows more regard for their lives if they are involved in an emergency than he’s prepared to show himself.
“The State Labor Government has completely bungled the delivery of rescue helicopter services in NSW.
“It replaced well run community organisations with a foreign owned and profit driven service that is more expensive and is causing widespread concern about its ability to respond to emergencies in a timely manner.
“Instead of pledging to clear up the protocols, Health Minister John Della Bosca needs to set up a system where the helicopter service closest to the accident or emergency is the first one to respond,” Mrs Skinner said.