Patient's family member drives ambulance to hospital amid staff shortages

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Staff shortages lead to five Tasmanian paramedics operating ambulances alone, and in one case a patient's family member being forced to drive the emergency vehicle to hospital.

A patient's family member was forced to drive an ambulance to the Royal Hobart Hospital, after a horror 24 hours saw a paramedic attend a call-out alone.During one call-out, a patient's family member had to drive the ambulanceA surge in demand, combined with staff shortages, meant five paramedics were operating ambulances alone last Thursday and Friday.

A family member, who was an off-duty police officer, subsequently drove the ambulance to the hospital without lights and sirens. "Obviously having a relative driving an ambulance is not optimal, and given the heightened circumstances and the distraction for people driving an emergency vehicle in those circumstances, it's just not an acceptable arrangement."

 

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This is terrible and likely to get worse as staff across the board will be more stressed and, therefore, more likely to leave. No idea what the fix might be though.

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