Medics

Meeting Chaired By
Alan Clyne

Meeting Conducted
09:00-11:05

Committee Attendees
John Thomas, Mike Hardwick, Lee Waller, Jesse George, Jon Noble and Karen Gerristen.

Committee Apologies
No apologies

SJA Attendees
Alan Clyne, Tony Fitzgerald, John Backo, Stephanie Freemantle and Florentina Min.

St John Opening Statement

Call Volume
Workload has gone up 20% since last JCC, and the call volume has increased from 265 cases a day to 325 cases. St John believe this work has always been there and that we are now better placed to do that work. There are more crews (50-55 crews a day) and the turnaround times have improved. This also includes the Medic volume working across an 18-hour daily period. Currently the establishment on most days is at 70.

Workload is heavily dependent on APTC, some days crews are doing certain jobs and the next day they are not. Last Sunday PTS did eight country retrievals, which obviously left the metropolitan area a little vacant. KPI response performance is over the 90% benchmark.

Patient Liaison Officer in Joondalup Health Campus
St John are toying with the idea of placing an officer into this hospital to assist with ramped Ambulance Transport and Medic crews. The AEAWA stated what benefit would this provide when a Hospital Liaison Manager is already placed there to deal with ramped crews?

St John will bring further information back to the table to discuss this proposal further.

Leftover Items from the Previous Agenda

Vehicle Maintenance Requests
This system has been sorted, and information has been provided to all Ambulance Transport Officers and Medics. This item is now listed as “Closed”. However, if further issues occur we will raise this again at a future JCC.

Ready Now Jobs at Hospitals
This item has been closed from the last JCC. St John had advised all officers that if they arrive to pick up the patient and after 15-minutes they are still not ready a call to PTS comms should occur to advise. Depending on workload you will either remain there a little longer until the patient is ready, or the job will need to be rebooked and you will be sent another call.

The AEAWA stated St John need a ‘checklist’ for ready now calls. Someone should be calling and finding out; is the cannula out, is the paperwork done, have all interventions ceased with the patient, before we attend. This will prevent crews hanging around at hospitals. With the current state of the health system, we do enough of this already.

A further discussion occurred around ‘wait and return’ calls. Some officers have been forced to wait excessively long at scenes whilst other calls move more smoothly. As always wait and returns will be arranged on a case-by-case basis. Some scenes it may not be appropriate to leave the patient, whilst other times it will be OK.

It is also dependent on the procedure that patient is going for, as this will determine the time the crew is required to wait. All such calls will be advised by PTS comms.

Forced Overtime
The procedure requested by St John for officers to call PTS comms is clearly becoming an issue for many members. Officers are calling three to four times to advise they can not do overtime are not getting through to anyone on the phone, as those staff are busy and on calls themselves.

The AEAWA advised that this was brought up in the Paramedic JCC and the Association requested an AmbiCad message which pops up and asks on shift crews if they would like a shift extension, crews can simply hit a ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ button.

With an excessive number of calls going into our communication centres each day, and employees constantly under the pump, why create a system where extra call volumes come in?

St John seemed happy to review this, and they will provide an answer shortly. It was also advised that with the extra new staff that have hit the road and Transport ‘book off’ rates improving, this may not be such an issue in the future.

New Agenda Items

Vehicle Maintenance Requests
This is now a closed. The Ambulance Transport Officer Newsletter has provided all information on this issue to the workforce. If any issues are still occurring, Ambulance Transport Officers and Medics are advised to contact the AEAWA, and we can relist the problem on the JCC agenda.

Roster System
Members are a little concerned at the length delays of this upcoming roster system. St John advised that there is now a Team purely focussed on this. St John are still reviewing all the potential systems and data capturing processes and some head way is expected in the next calendar year. St Johns will keep members informed through the AEAWA and the Ambulance Transport Newsletter.

Closed Vans
The question was asked about the data capturing of closed vehicles. The AEAWA would like to see how many shifts/vehicles are closed daily (inclusive of Medic and Transport Officer vehicles). St John did not have that data with them but provided some data from today (13/09/2023). Out of the 37 rostered vehicles today they were 5 down.

There were no specifics of Medic/Transport configurations. St John would be happy to inform the AEAWA on future closures of vehicles.

Transferring Infants/Babies
Discussions occurred around transferring new borns. In some cases, crews are saying its unsafe to have mum on one stretcher and the baby on the other. As they can not see the child and its very hard to assess them properly on route.

The AEAWA intervened and asked the question ‘have the new baby blankets been provided to the Transport fleet yet? St Johns stated ‘No’. This is a simple fix. Again the AEAWA would like to remind all officers YOU SHOULD NOT USE THE BABY BLANKET UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES! The manufacturer states it can only be used in ‘EMERGENCY SITUATIONS’. If an issue occurs and you are Transporting a newborn under non-emergency circumstances, any fallout will land WITH THE DRIVER!!! As you have deemed the manufacturers warning to be unimportant and you have chosen to ignore the warning! The risk is yours to take.

The AEAWAs advice is to politely decline the job as it is unsafe, if you feel you are pressured into doing the call contact the AEAWA immediately. A St John lawful directive under workplace law is not lawful if the direction has the potential to cause harm or if the request is illegal. Thankfully you will be covered for both!

Crews Working the 12-Hour Roster
St John really dropped the ball with this one. With the introduction of the 12-hour shifts a number of employees were under the impression, and in some cases led to believe that as they have moved from an 8.5-hour day roster to a 12-hour a day roster they would be receiving 3.5-hours of overtime per shift.

THIS IS NOT THE CASE – You will be paid a 12-hour rate for the days you work, not the overtime. Unfortunately, no one is advised of this, and it is not until the employee see’s their first pay that they realise their pay doesn’t add up.

Officers are then contacting St John, who then inform the employee they do not get paid the overtime.

All officers should note that those who work these rosters often receive contracts that state your pay is referenced to Appendix 2 in the Ambulance Transport Officers Certified Agreement (as all Ambulance Transport rates are). Unfortunately, St John never realised that there are NO 12-HOUR SHIFTS IN APPENDIX 2. So, your rate will be calculated differently. Unfortunately, it appears there are various Ambulance Transport Officers working these 12-hour rosters on a multitude of pay rates. St John are in the process of reviewing this.

Medic/LAR Crews
The AEAWA asked about placing these resources in the Southern metropolitan corridor. Some of these crews log on in Belmont and Wangara and are then continually deployed to the Mandurah and Rockingham areas, as there are no resources there.

This leads to extensive shift extensions, as crews are driving 50+ minutes to get back to their starting locations to then knock off. Some officers are driving from their homes in these areas to Wangara to then drive back again.

St Johns appeared receptive on this matter and would like to see more resources placed in this area. Further discussions and information will occur soon on permanent placements of these vehicles.

Country Transfers
Members approached the AEAWA regarding the allocation of crews to do country transfers. Some officers appear to get 2-3 a week whilst others never get allocated one. Members would like to know what the process is.

The AEAWA suggested an EOI go out to all officers, get a list of those keen to do them, and were possible divide the transfers as best as you can. Its not a hard thing to do. St John appeared to like this idea, and they will return to the table at the next JCC to discuss options.

Currently, these calls are mainly given to Casuals over full time officers, which is strange as casuals cost more.

Extra Discussions

Transfers from Perth to Country Regions
A discussion occurred around the use of the Multi Patient Transport Vehicle. Yesterday three Transport crews brought down three patients from Perth to Albany Hospital. The question was asked why the MPTV wasn’t used. St Johns stated that sometimes its more expensive to run this vehicle over three separate crews.

They realise that three crews are taken out of the metropolitan circulation, however, it is cheaper for the organisation to do this over the deployment of the MPTV.

Will We See 224 LAR/Transport Crews?
St John stated perhaps, originally, we were told there is not enough depth in resources to run 224 vehicles, however this has recently changed. Next month there may be the possibility to add further 224 vehicles to support the RFDS crews. Early in the morning and late evening jobs cannot be done currently, as there are now crews to do them, this means the Paramedics crews are assigned.

The AEAWA discussed the current new officers, some have a weekday contract, and some have weekend contracts. Some weekenders are racing through their mentor shifts by doing extra weekdays, whilst other weekenders are told they can not work weekdays as they are on weekend contracts.

Once again, we seem to have hit the old St John bottle neck when only the chosen few get passed. St John will review this and get back to the AEAWA on why this is occurring.

St John to Return to the Next JCC With
Heatmap of the work distribution from the northern corridor to Jurien Bay.

Meeting Closed
11:05

Next Meeting
TBA

Meeting Chaired By
Tont Fitzgerald.

Meeting Conducted
13:30 – 15:30.

Committee Attendees
Lee Waller, Jon Noble and Karen Gerristen.

Committee Apologies
John Thomas and Mike Hardwick

SJA Attendees
Tony Fitzgerald, Stephanie Freemantle and Kate Lawrence.

Medic Specific Agenda Items

Vehicle Maintenance Requests
Follow up on Fleet and Radio procedures, and how they process the vehicle issues. Fleet have a detailed system. They review the request and then check what the issue is. Dependent on what it is, a Transport Officer may check or troubleshoot the problem. This is to reduce vehicles being tagged as being ‘off road’.

The AEAWA suggest this needs to be a CEP item, as employees are not trained in some of the items they are signing off. We understand some vehicles are being tagged as un-operational, but how do we know that officers are doing what is required to fix the issue. if they have had no training in fixing the fault. There were reported issues of the internet on the AmbiCad on nights constantly going off. This effects the sign in sheets, drug registers etc. St John will look into this.

Ready Now Jobs
If you do arrive and the patient is not ready, what do we do? This was actually discussed in the last JCC and the feedback from St John was to wait 20 minutes and then if the patient is not ready then you call comms and advise the facility that the call will need to be rebooked. Another question was asked, does comms change these booking times? It may be a booking for an 10:00 pick up, but you get given the job at 08:30 as it’s been changed to ‘Ready Now’.

Sometimes the staff on scene were not advised that the patient is going early, so no paper work or discharge forms have been done. St Johns stated it is an online booking process, and it can be difficult to manage such occurrences.

Wait and Return Jobs
Often employees are being advised the patient will be able to return in 15 minutes, 45 minutes later they we are still waiting. Comms get frustrated as we haven’t left the scene as they have jobs outstanding, and we get frustrated. There should be a history of these places that are never ready, it’s difficult if you have a patient to go for a procedure who can not sit. We arrive with the stretcher and we either can’t transfer them to have the procedure done, or we leave with the patient or just wait. When crews do wait, they are then not available for other calls.

Discussions also occurred over Medics not doing wait and returns. St John will review this feedback and will inform the AEAWA of the outcome shortly.

Mixed Scope of Practice
A discussion around the duty of care and officers changing scopes dependent on what role they are currently doing. Issues of officers going from ATO to Medic was extensive. Some officers have reported to St John that upskilling in patient treatments have not been happening because the attendant trained in the extra skills is driving for that shift and not attending.

ATOs Being Lost to Medics and Other Positions
A discussion took place over these individuals leaving the role, but not the organisation. This has been a problem for years, and now St Johns are realising this. More intakes may be necessary to properly service the fleet.

Vehicle Overstocking
A newsletter was sent out by St John highlighting the new vans and how they should be stocked. Many officers are still piling equipment into the new vehicles. As many depots have numerous staff moving through them, many believe that instead of performing a full van check, officers are just placing numerous items into the vehicle. This practice then makes the oncoming crew remove the stock from the vehicle. St John have been made aware of this and are currently reviewing the situation.

Forced Overtime
Members believe as they are struggling to fill shifts, forced overtime and shift extensions are occurring regularly. Examples that when shifts finish between 14:00-18:00 there are little oncoming crews. Those who finish later are now being sent late afternoon calls that will take them way over their shift finish times.

Some crews are doing 45 minutes shift extensions on an almost daily basis. Crews are saying that a job will always be sent in the last hour even though it may take 2-hours to do it. There is often very little consideration to travel times from hospitals etc back to the depot.

Meeting Closed
Meeting ended at 13:30.

Next Meeting
TBA

Meeting Chaired By
Alan Clyne

Meeting Conducted
09:30 – 12:30.

Committee Attendees
Lee Waller.

Committee Apologies
John Thomas, Mike Hardwick, Jon Nobel and Karen Geristen.

SJA Attendees
Alan Clyne, Tony Fitzgerald, Kate Lawrence and Stephanie Freemantle.

SJA Introduction

Workload
St John commenced the meeting stating they will have a full team back on the March the 8th regarding the roster and there will also be a significant increase in workload. SJA are  currently looking at how much workload is out here and how much of that workload they can get. SJA are currently reviewing crew numbers and have stated there is about 260 jobs a day within the metropolitan suitable for Transport.

Three is a lot of work SJA aren’t getting, and they admit they lost some of that contracted  work but are actively trying to get that work back. The difficulty is, is that Transport Crews are helping Ambulance Crews in the metro area and therefore have been quite late to many  Transport jobs. This has meant the organisation lost some of the contracts.

Other Transport Services
There are approximately 25-30 extra vehicles on the road (through various other companies).  This shows that there is not a lot of capacity to pick up much of the workload. Post 18:00  many of these businesses are not responding. So, there is certainly capacity for Transport  Crews to work into the nights.

Culture Survey
Focus is and always has been the results of the survey. You will see a lot more conversation  about culture in the workplace occurring and working groups will be established in moving forward. Staff from all areas of the business will be able to have input on how we as an organisation progress.

Medic/Medic Model
Longer mentoring periods are wanted by St John and there is a current dispute with the  AEAWA. This will be discussed at a later stage dependent on the result delivered by the Fair  Work Commission.

Phone Carrying on Shifts
St John wanted to remind all officers that carrying the phones is a must, not only for being contacted, but it is also a safety issue.

Agenda Items

Baby Blanket & Baby Capsule
The new harness is being rolled out and is currently able to be reviewed on Connect. It fits the Ferno stretcher and the Stryker. So far, the tests performed by the Safety Team has been successful and it will be seen in service shortly. Members have stated they are still concerned, as ‘eye balling’ the patient will be extremely difficult as Transport Officers sit behind the patient. Further discussions to ensure this practice is safe for both our members and the patients will require further discussion.

Pre-shift Checks
Many members have stated that on shift commencement they are required to roll out to many calls that are outstanding or need to be on time. This leads to Transport/Medic Crews not being able to adequately check their vehicles. St John advised they will not pay overtime to check a vehicle and that if a crew needs extra time to perform a vehicle check they should advice communications. This also will be supported.

‘Ready Now’ Jobs at Hospitals
This has been a long term JCC item, and members have asked this to be dealt with. On arrival to a hospital pick up and the patient is not ready, crews do not want to have an issue with the hospital, and get into a debate with the hospital staff about how long they should stay there. The AEAWA advised back in the day there was an agreement to wait 15-minutes and if the patient was not ready within that time frame a call to comms was required. If there is low workload then the crew may be advised to stay, if not the crew may be asked to leave and do another call. Crews are advised to contact comms post 15-minutes and they will make the decision. St John stated they will put this as an item in the upcoming Transport Newsletter.

Allocated Times for Lunch Break
Members have stated that they often find themselves having a lunch break 2-hours into their shift. The AEAWA asked if this is the case officers should be allowed to have lunch as close to lunch time as possible. Many people do not eat lunch at 9am. St John advised that this is often done to ensure all crews can fit within the window of a lunch break, however they would review this and align the times better if they can. St John also stated that if a crew feels they are constantly having lunch at this time they can call comms and request a later break, dependent on workload this may be able to be facilitated.

Next JCC Meeting
TBA

Meeting Closed
The meeting closed at 12:30

Meeting commenced
13:00-15:30 on August 9^th, 2022

Committee Attendee’s
John Thomas, Lee Waller and Jon Nobel

Committee Apologies
Mike Hardwick, Dave Higgins, and Conrad Fairhead.

SJA Attendees
Tony Fitzgerald, Natalie Braxton, Alan Clyne, Simon Hughes, Serena, Ken Tan.

Opening Statement

Department of Health Transport Contract
There are five listed organisations contained within the contract, those being Medic One, Medical Edge, National Patient Transport, Wilson and SJA. Senior Management have been in contact with these organisations on a regular basis. Their appears to be plenty of movement for contracts.

Agenda Items

APTC Times and Availability
This has been appreciated by many of our Transport members. The decisions made regarding hospital-to-hospital transfer priorities are now more appropriate, however APTC do not currently work 24/7, and crews have found hospitals are returning to normal practices when APTC staff are not working. SJA have stated there is a strong desire to have this operating 24/7.

The delay has been in recruiting two more Paramedics into APTC, there aren’t enough to take two off the road to fill the positions. When this changes there will be a push to constantly staff this around the clock.

Pre-Shift Checks
There was some initial confusion regarding this point as SJA came back with what needed to be checked before you commence your shift. The AEAWA reiterated that this was about crews not being given adequate time to check their vehicles. In the past it was 20 minutes, but now the workload has increased, they often find themselves being contacted 2 minutes into their shift to get rolling.

The AEAWA suggest (as we did in the Paramedic pre-shift checks) to advise what the organisation wants us to check, then allot a time to those checks, and crews will move once the checks have been completed.

Reasonable Overtime
This was raised as members particularly in the country regions were given jobs (in some cases 7-hour turn arounds) two hours before their shift finished. When officers said no to the unreasonable request, they often felt pushed into doing the call. They advice was to contact PTS communications and advise them that you cannot do these shift extensions, if you have no luck then contact the a Transport Manager.

Members are advised to contact the AEAWA on [email protected] if your request to finish on time is denied. The AEAWA stated that their needs to be a focus to get crews home on time, and low staffing levels is not the fault of the officer. We realise some officers welcome the overtime; however, the organisation needs to understand the work life/family life balance and assist.

Reporting Vehicle Faults and Damage
SJA would like to see more officers filling out crash packs and notifying of any vehicle faults so that these issues can be rectified quickly. SJA stated that this is a NO FAULT process, and that they realise many of the officers completing the forms may not have even been involved in the incident (they may have just found a problem).

Next Meeting
TBA

Meeting commenced
10:00-14:00 on May 3^rd, 2022

Committee Attendee’s
Lee Waller

Committee Apologies
Jon Noble

SJA Attendees
Natalie Braxton, Alan Cline, Tony Fitzgerald and John Backo

Opening Statement
A request for input across the agenda items was requested, to gauge the on-road feeling of staff. SJA stated some things have been lost during communication. Further JCC’s it’s been requested that each group place on 6-8 agenda items each so that we can move through the items more quickly. Some items have not been resolved and other items have been on hold for a long time. A commitment to establish a priority agenda list was agreed to. However, all items should be reviewed at some stage to allay any concerns across the fleet.

SJA have been successful in all areas of the contracts, however for some they are not the exclusive tenders, as many other parties have been included. Online bookings will predominantly stay. Calls in may be changed if we cannot attend these calls, there may be an opportunity to change the pickup times or decline the call if resources are limited. SDS, Wilsons and NPT are also involved, and they will most likely attend if we don’t.

Competition is now in the marketplace more than ever before. SJA have lost some work in the past 18-months as ambulance are not doing that work due to emergency workload. RFDS work is also being discussed regarding the contract, between SJA, Health and RFDS. No wheelchair transport in the new contract under the Department of Health will occur (approx. 80% of the wheelchair vehicle workload), these patients will be placed in PTV’s. If it’s a hospital pick up or the patient is being transported from hospital to a facility, the new contract will not allow these patients to be transported in the usual SJA wheelchair vehicle.

SJA want to scale up their Transport numbers to fulfil these contracts. A review of casuals (required hours) is being reviewed along with the cycle times, to see how they can improve. Questions such as are we driving too long to scenes, are we being overly ramped, or are there other hospital delays occurring effecting our times will be reviewed. Basically, are these issues related to the hospitals, our dispatching or a mixture of both.

Four new vehicles are close to being made available over the next few weeks. They are an addition to the fleet, not replacements. The current BCP level is being reviewed for Ambulance Transport Officers, SJA have stated that the absentee rate for PTS is a lot lower than expected, hence why the review is to occur.

The Community Transport Officer role has been impacted; a greatly reduced scope of transport is being discussed. Further information will be made available at a later date. However, much of the calls they were doing have been altered.

Country Transport Officers can request roster changes. In the past this been excluded for our country members. SJA have stated they will review these requests when they are made aware. For future JCCs there may be an opportunity for PTS comms to be involved in the meetings. This way a dispatch perspective can paly a part in the discussions.

New Baby Blankets
These will be placed into the new vehicles; they are DHS blankets. When the older ones come in, when the vehicles are being serviced, they will also be replaced. If crews need to request the baby capsule so the patient can be transported safely, rather than using the blanket they should do so.

The AEAWA would like to remind the members that only approved (by the manufacturer) options should be used. The current Baby Blanket can only be used in ‘emergency situations. Crews should arrange a capsule and not feel pressured to transport the patient.

Fatigue Management
RASOs coming in to work at SJA after they have completed their full-time work. Some officers have worked 17 days straight. SJA have stated they should have a 9-hour break before they commence their SJA shift. This is for employee safety.

If any member believes they may be at risk should contact the Transport Team Leader ASAP to discuss, if they are not happy with the answer, they should contact an AEAWA Delegate immediately.

Shift Start Times
Employees are not given appropriate times to check their vehicles. SJA have stated that if you commence your shift at 07:00, that is when you start. A time-in-motion check will be investigated by SJA to see how long a vehicle check should occur (obviously vehicles will be in different states but at least a time frame for specific checks should occur). This is similar to a claim within the Paramedic/Ambulance Officer EBA negotiations.

During a recent discussion with the AEAWA and the Fair Wok Commissioner SJA DO NOT want to pay overtime for crews to attend work early to check their vehicle. This creates issues when you start your shift on time and are requested to roll out at your start time. A study will occur soon to see exactly how long it should take to check your vehicle. This time will be allotted at the commencement of your shift. Further information will be provided.

Section 4 – Not for Resus
St John of God Hospitals will no longer be filling out these forms. So crews will no longer have the form issue within this health setting. This item has now been resolved due to this and has been removed from the list of items. If any further instances arise, the AEAWA will return this topic to the agenda.

Team Leaders at on-road Stations
Management have had a lot more contact with staff on road. The recent Culture Survey (last years) said that management were not on-road, they were not contactable. Team Leaders now have laptops and are working in multiple areas so they can be seen by more employees. Some steps to address the survey responses have occurred and others are under development. These will be communicated at a later date.

Ready Now Calls (raised in the previous JCC)
Calls are getting brought forward to ‘ready now’ and the patient is never ready. Sometimes crews are driving 30 minutes to a ready now call only to be told the paperwork isn’t ready. The question was raised who changes the call to ready now? SJA – stated this will be reviewed, specifically how the ready now gets activated and assigned. There was no clear answer on how this occurs, and feedback will be presented around this.

The AEAWA stated this is still happening, many crews are saying the same thing, the job is booked as ready now but when you arrive on the ward the nurse says your early, we are not ready and then the crew must help the nurse pack patients belongings and wait for paperwork. Some cases people have been picked up early but when arrived at the destination, the other end is not ready as they still have a patient waiting to go or a room to be cleaned.

SJA stated to call comms and let them know you have arrived and the patient is not ready, provide an estimated ready time and comms will make the decision if you stay or not. Instruction will be sent out to Transport employees explaining this soon.

Reporting damaged vehicles
Some look appalling, hubcaps missing, dents. Items missing. SJA want staff to report these so the insurance claims can be processed. SJA reiterated today this will not create a discussion point with any officer, this is a safety issue. Anyone can report the damage, the organisation will not assume that the reporting officer caused the damage. Crews reporting these issues early can reduce severe damage occurring to the vehicles or even injury to their colleagues. These issues when left will become worse.

The AEAWA are supportive of reporting damage to vehicles ASAP to increase member safety.

Reasonable Overtime
Our members in the country have stated that on occasions they are ‘coerced’ into doing long shift extensions. An example given was a crew who were knocking off in three-hours when they were given a transfer to Perth, effectively a 7-hour turnaround. Yes, the crew has three hours left to work, but a four-hour shift extension is NOT reasonable. SJA will review these occurrences.

As always if a member finds themselves in this situation, let us know immediately and we can discuss this at a senior Management level to resolve this. Of course, if you are happy to do it…. Enjoy the OT.

Heating in the Transfer Bus
Members have stated it is extremely cold and patients often complain. This was reviewed and the feedback was there is no place to house the heater due to the stretcher configuration and the general design of the vehicle.

Changing Shift Times
If staff want to change times, contact management and they will see if the changes do not impact in a negative way. If not, then the change will be considered. Flexibility in roster times should be able to occur. SJA will review all requests.

Shift Extensions
Notify comms if you cannot do OT at the end of the shift. Instances of crews calling to advise late in the shift can cause issues, If a member provides sufficient notice, the request will have a higher chance of approval.

Any issues with this directive please contact the AEAWA.

Contacting Clinical Support Paramedics
Use of CSPs and inconstant information – CSP’s are a larger organisational resource and not necessarily a transport specific role. Take the clinical guidance at a time. Questions were raised that some CSPs don’t really have an understanding of Transport specific issues and their specific CPGs. SJA have stated to always follow the CSP advice. CSPs are shift colour specific and most transport employees work Monday-Friday, so continuity is always going to be difficult to maintain.

Hospitals telling crews what jobs they are doing
A crew attended a hospital for one job and the hospital staff stated no you’re doing this one. SJA have stated crews placed in this situation should call comms and feedback what is occurring on-scene.

The AEAWA agree, it should not be up to the officers to sort this. Management should be contacted, and that Manager should be calling the hospital and making a decision of who is to be transported.

Next meeting
TBA

Meeting for the Transport JCC
10:00 till 12:15:30 on October 4th 2021

Committee Attendee’s
Lee Waller, Dave Higgins, Mike Hardwick and Jon Nobel

Committee Apologies
No AEAWA apologies

Clinical Governance
The same fortnightly meetings occur with clinical governance. They discuss SOPs and clinical matters that have been raised by employees.

The College
Meetings also occur every two weeks with the college which are designed for planning and implementation processes. In other words if a Transport Officer school is required ASAP, there is an avenue to do this.

Communicating SOPs to Employees
Will be done each week for work related discussions; The new Operations Manager will take this over once the person has been selected.

Observing Shifts
In order to create a more ‘team’ orientated environment it was decided that managers and PTS comms staff would do observing shifts. There are some employees that have not seen the transport on-road component before. Even on-road staff to observe what happens in the communications room. There are many facets of the various roles that could be better understood with these observing shifts.

Baby Capsules
Some Transport members are not happy with the current Baby Harness. SJA had been contacted to review the design. During this meeting Clinical Governance feedback was the current harness is a clinically approved piece of equipment and that there should be no issues using it. The response from Clinical Governance has been requested in writing to both employee groups. The DHS Ped Rest is the item that will replace the current harness and will be a long term roll out at the moment they are only scheduled for the new Stryker vehicles, but later all vehicles this will be fitted in.

AEAWA – Transport Officers/Medics SHOULD NEVER place a child in these devices as the designer’s stipulation is they are only to be used under emergency situations.

The Radio System
Updated communications regarding radio etiquette, i.e. keeping it short and sweet on the radio than talking too much and taking up the radio channel.

Report Raised
A report on casuals attending shifts after working another job was raised, This had led to officers feeling ‘unsafe’ as the officer had come from a night shift (in another workplace) straight to a day shift with SJA. SJA – stated that this was unsafe and that any officer who feels like their partner is too fatigued to work should raise this. AEAWA – There are volunteers who do that across the state, SJA can not have it both ways. Some volunteers work a full day at their paid employment and then come to volunteer a night shift for SJA.

Wheelchair Kg Limit and SOP
It is updated and on connect and it is 170kg for the limit of the standard SJA wheelchair. A bit more work and investigation around the weight limits will occur. Some officers are not aware of the weight limits which can lead to injuries to both the officers and the patient. SJA – If you believe a patient is too large to move then a call to PTS comms should occur to organise a back up to perform the movement safely.

Driver Fatigue with Country Kilometers Travelled
Some officers (particularly in the country) are driving hundreds of kilometers a day, some calls seeing crews doing 8-hour turn arounds. SJA are going to review this and are hoping that once more employees are hired, this will reduce these.

Vehicle Specific Checklists
There is only one specific vehicle check list, this is used for all vehicles. SJA need to have checklists for all types of vehicles. It could be easily done for the checklist to be placed on the epcr to determine what list you need to fill out. Ie if you’re logged on as a wheelchair officer then that specific vehicle item checklist can be come up when you log in. SJA will look at this and see if it can be done.

Section4 of the CPR Form
The form is non-valid as it is only for the admission of the patient to the facility and not for the transfer to the facility. The Section 4 needs to be signed so that the NFR can be valid Hospitals need to be aware that Section 4 needs to incorporate the transfer to the facility. SJA – will discuss this with Health and provide feedback to staff.

PTS Dispatch During Jobs
Dispatch often calling whilst they are dealing with patients, some crews can not answer the call, and comms still repeatedly ring. One case a crew were wearing gowns and could not answer the call and received numerous calls. AEAWA – Crews are not happy as nearly every 20 minutes they are getting a call. There was an acknowledgment that ‘welfare checks’ are required in the community, but many of these calls are occurring whilst crews are in hospitals. It appears there has been a directive to call crews every 20-minutes to see what the holdup is. SJA will review.

Ready Now Calls
Calls are getting brought forward to ‘ready now’ and the patient is never ready. Sometimes crews are driving 30 minutes to a ready now call only to be told the paperwork isn’t ready. The question was raised who changes the call to ready now? SJA – this will be reviewed, specifically how the ready now gets activated and assigned. There was no clear answer on how this occurs, and feedback will be presented around this.

Wheelchair Vehicle Dispatching
Being dispatched into forced overtime. There are not enough vehicles, and many days crews feel forced into OT. Calls are being allocated to crews knowingly that a significant shift extension will occur. AEAWA – this can change dependent on the dispatcher, and the question was raised what is the organisations stance on ‘reasonable OT’? is it ½ an hour, an hour?

Modified 79 Times
Jobs are being modified constantly; acknowledgment times are being adjusted to the 79 time. Crews are being shown as ‘79’ whilst traveling to the call. Who is changing this?SJA – stated they do not believe this is being done intentionally but will review this process and provide feedback.

Meeting Concluded
The meeting concluded with the next JJC date assigned to January 2022.

The AEAWA believed that this was too long away, and many of the agenda items were not even discussed due to time. The meetings need to be aligned to the same 2-hour time slot more frequently or a ½ day meeting should occur every 3-months so that more items can be discussed. The AEAWA will write to SJA to air this grievance. SJA stated they will implement the next JCC for December 2021 but still want the same 2-hour time slot.