Berwick CFA volunteers Lieutenant Craig Sanderson, Anthony Jones, John Tregoning, Nigel Holmes, Lieutenant Peter Obeth, Paul Webster and, front, Captain Alan Boyd with some of the Emergency Medical Response equipment.BERWICK Fire Brigade is one of five Country Fire Authority (CFA) units selected to participate in a pilot program aimed at improving the survival chances of time critical medical emergencies.
Emergency Medical Response (EMR) is a joint initiative between the CFA and the Metropolitan Ambulance Service (MAS).
Five CFA brigades are participating in the pilot program: Berwick, Edithvale, Mornington, South Morang and Whittlesea.
The training, undertaken by 20 Berwick CFA volunteers over the past eight months, has already been put to use.
Berwick Captain Alan Boyd said a crew responded to a cardiac arrest in Berwick and assisted ambulance paramedics with CPR.
“Firefighters were called out to a motor vehicle collision on Clyde Road for a debris wash away,” he said.
“An elderly male involved in the accident suffered chest pain and firefighters treated the patient and administered oxygen until an ambulance arrived. The patient could not be revived.”
The training program, delivered by experienced MAS ambulance officers, provides the EMR firefighters with the ability to assist with CPR and airway management, perform oxygen therapy, operate a semi-automatic external defibrillator and provide a high level of care for the patient until he or she is handed over to an ambulance crew.
The firefighters will also be able to perform initial spinal injury and respiratory distress/chest pain management as well as treat trauma victims and respond to other medical conditions.
This new service is not replacing the current ambulance service but is an additional resource aimed at timely intervention.
High priority emergency calls will have both ambulance and CFA response initiated simultaneously and either agency may arrive first.
If the CFA EMR crew arrives before the ambulance then firefighters will conduct patient assessment and commence advanced first-aid procedures.
Once an ambulance crew arrives on scene the patient care will be transferred to the ambulance officers, though they may still be assisted by the firefighters.
