General Chat

Or lack thereof :-|

OH and I were at a Sundowner last night when one of the more elderly guests, in his nineties, sat in his chair awkwardly and it toppled over, causing him to crack his head on a garden wall.

He had quite a deep wound to his skull and although bleeding fairly heavily, with much administration of towels this was brought under control quickly.

Called for an Ambulance via the emergency 000 number, waited, waited and waited. The caller was constantly being told " were are trying to call the Ambulance, please hold on.

Twenty minutes later, still no Ambulance so it was decided that he should be taken to Hospital by one of the guests., who fortunately as he was driving, had not been drinking.

OH offered to go with him to keep an eye on the patient.

When I eventually caught up with my OH, and that was a saga in itself, she said that even at the Hospital there wasn't an Ambulance to be seen

My only comment after this experience was to direct my wife, If I should ever collapse in the street or at home, to not bother calling for an Ambulance, but to phone Barrett and Sons direct who are our local Undertakers as it would be quicker and both results would be the same :-|

I hope the elderly gent recovered well.

So where were all the ambulances? All driving around Western Australia looking for patients ?

Our local (Australind) Station has one Ambulance staffed by Volunteers, the Bunbury Station is manned by permanent staff, but I don't know how many Ambulances are based there.

The accident happened just after six o'clock in the evening.

J was kept in overnight for obs but his pulse and BP were normal.

We'll check later on how he is and how he is going to get home.

His daughter lives in Albany, a four hour drive away. His son is local, but could not be contacted.

Good to hear that J is seemingly OK. Hope he recovers completely.

It can be one of the penalties of living in a more country area.


When we had our cabin, we were 60 km from the nearest "town" (ca 5,000 pop.). They had the ambulance station, and a small hospital. A volunteer fire brigade (NOT ambulance though) was in the even smaller place about 40 km from us. Neither of them would come out to us

We still had to pay for ambulance, fire and hospital services (plus school taxes) om our annual Property Tax Bill.

One day OH was clearing up the last of several very large rubbish dumps that the owner two before us had left, OH had cleared a semi-circle area of whatever was there, and then tried to prise something larger out of the "wall" now facing him.

It turned out to be a TV, a very old TV with glass tubes! It came out suddenly and smashed into his leg though he tried to get out of the way

One of thee tubes was broken, hit his shin, and put a great gash there, though he was wearing socks and long pants.

He came to the cabin, blood pouring down his leg.

Now what to do .............. neither the ambulance nor volunteer fire fighters would come out, even if we had had a cell phone that would work (no service).

I can't drive.

Two options ............... I stood at the farm gate hoping someone would pass and would take him, or we patched up his leg and he drove, in a manual car.

We did the latter, layers of gauze pads and cloth covered with duct tape around his leg. Arrived at the hospital, he jumped out and started across the parking lot to the Emergency, leaving a long trail of blood behind him.

I locked up the car, went into the hospital and followed the trail to a room where he was being treated by a 4th year Medical student from Scotland, over on a training session for 6 weeks during the summer.

She was very good, fixed him up, and then we had to return to "town" the next week and go to the Medical Clinic to have the stitches etc removed ...... by that same student :-D

I remember when I lived in Victoria Allan, we had to have separate ambulance cover from private health cover.

Before we left Medicare has been introduced but it was a very low cover and most people retained private medical insurance.

Is it different now or does WA operate a different system from Vic?

I/m not sure whether private medical funds cover the cost of an Ambulance call out as we do not have private insurance, but we do pay a yearly fee directly to the St John's Ambulance Service to cover any such costs

Couple of years ago GP decided I needed emergency admission to hospital and called ambulance. A lone paramedic came out, checked me over and advised as I wasnt liable to pop me clogs there and then I'd have to wait 4 hours for admission. "Er Indoors" took me in car, I somehow managed to get in a wheelchair unaided then a volunteer took me to ward so I could be checked out to find out was wrong. Turned out bowel cancer had emergency op 2 days later then main op 4 months later

Here in BC, we have to pay for ambulance service. I think it is soemwhere around $65 in the city, not sure whether that is the basic fee all over or whether you par more in the country where there may be many miles to the hopsital.

I don't know whether it is covered by our private health cover, as we haven't had to use an ambulance .......... touch wood!!!

We pay $A110.00 pa. There is a concession for pensioners, but we lost the Australian Pension a few years ago

The Ambulance Service exists, at least ln WA, but unfortunately sport takes the priority.

By that I mean that most sports have to have a first aid presence at their venues. That, in country areas, is usually provided by the local Ambulance Service, which is paid for by the club or event organisers.

Fees/funds versus whole of community protection?

Guess which wins every time :-|