Ambulance services differ from state to state and from country to country. The two
ambulance services I have chosen to do my comparative essay on are the Metropolitan
Ambulance Service of Victoria and the ACT ambulance service.
The questions I will be addressing in the essay are:
- What type of service are they?
- How they funded?
- What are the skill levels with in the service?
- What type of personnel does a crew compromise of?
- What types of vehicles are used?
- What types of uniforms are used?
The Metropolitan Ambulance Service of Victoria
The Metropolitan Ambulance Service of Victoria was established in 1899 by the
Ambulance Services Act 1986. The roles of the ambulance service was to respond rapidly
to medical emergency, provide specialized, medical skills to maintain life and to reduce
injuries in emergency situations, provide transport to move people requiring medical
treatment and to faster public education in first aid.
Originally starting out with a just horse drawn cart operating from stables in 1899, the
service has now progressed and now operates with various kinds of motor vehicles as
well as a helicopter.
The ACT Ambulance Service
The ACT Ambulance Service began in 1915 along with the construction of the national
capital of Australia. The service is responsible for providing emergency and non-
emergency services to the people of the ACT. To do this they have provided at least one
intensive care paramedic on every ambulance.
Like the Metropolitan Ambulance Service of Victoria the ACT Ambulance Service has
also progressed and has also got a helicopter for use in emergencies.
Type Of Service
The Metropolitan Ambulance Service is a government run service. The service reports to
the Victorian Government of Human Services.
The ACT Ambulance Service is 1 of 4 operational services in the ACT emergency
services authority and is also a government based service.
Funding
As both the services are run by the government of the corresponding service, they are
funded mainly by the government itself.
What are the skill levels with in the service?
The skill levels that are present in the Metropolitan Ambulance Service
of Victoria are paramedics, Ambulance Service Medical
Officers (ASMO), and Mobile Intensive Care Ambulance (MICA).
MICA level
The skill levels that are present in the ACT ambulance service is paramedic and intensive
care paramedic (ICP), with ICP's being the highest level that can be achieved.
The Crew
For the Metropolitan Ambulance Service of Victoria, paramedics staff the ambulances,
planes and helicopters. Normal vehicles are always staffed with two paramedics, both of
which are the same level. There are also MICA single responder vehicles which are only
staffed by one MICA paramedic. As for crews that are positioned on planes and
helicopters, the planes are piloted by police pilots and the helicopters are piloted by
contracted pilots which are not paramedics.
The Metropolitan Ambulance Service of Victoria will respond to any 000 calls, but
Victoria also has the St John's Ambulance Service, which consists of volunteers and
attend group events such as football comes and parades.
As for the ACT Ambulance Service, the stretcher ambulances are always staffed with two
paramedics, just like the Metropolitan Ambulance Service of Victoria, however one of
the crew members of the ACT service crew is an ICP. The ACT Service also have single
response units which are also crewed by an ICP. Along with the stretcher ambulance and
the single response vehicles they also have patient transport vehicles staffed by two
people at the appropriate level.
Types Of Vehicles
The Metropolitan Ambulance Service of Victoria have a mixed fleet of 144 stretcher
ambulances. The models for these vehicles are the Ford F350, the Mercedes Benz
Sprinters and the Volkswagen Transporter T5. At the end of the 2004 and 2005 financial
Year the service had all their vehicles change to the Mercedes Benz Sprinter Models.
The ACT Ambulance Services use Mercedes Sprinters for both ICP and
Patient Transport Services, with the ICP vehicles obviously fitted out
to a higher level. SRU vehicles used are currently Ford territory,
marked up as appropriate.
Both of the services also have access to helicopters for long distance emergencies and
transport.
Types Of Uniforms
The Metropolitan Ambulance Service of Victoria, have two different types of uniform.
One is a navy blue shirt, pants, jumpsuit or woolen jumper, which consist of blue name
badge, red and white badging on the right breast pocket and the Metropolitan Ambulance
Service of Victoria logo on the sleeves. The other is a fluorescent safety vests and rain
jackets. The bicycle response unit uses red jackets and black bike pants.
The ACT Ambulance predominantly use the bottle green polo shirt, pants and jumper
when on the job.
Conclusion
These two services have major differences as well as having some similarities even
though the two areas in which they operate are of the one country. No matter how
different one service may be to another in different states or even in different countries,
all services that are provided have the same role they must play in the community, that is
to respond to all emergency calls and to reduce the amount of injury in the community.
