Minister for Police and Community Safety
The Honourable Jack Dempsey
Ambulance celebrates 21 years as state-wide service
The Queensland Ambulance Service (QAS) is celebrating 21 years as a statewide organisation by honouring the work of its personnel and reflecting on major advancements in emergency care.
Minister for Community Safety Jack Dempsey said the service had significantly evolved since amalgamating from 96 individual transport brigades on 1 July, 1991.
“This amalgamation saw the QAS become one of the largest pre-hospital care organisations in the world,” he said.
“This week is the perfect opportunity to celebrate a unified service which serves more than four-million Queenslanders from 295 response locations across seven regions.
“Whether it is paramedics responding to a serious road crash, an emergency medical dispatcher calmly providing first aid advice to a caller or a first responder tending to a patient in a rural area, the quality of our pre-hospital care is second to none.
“Each day, people around Queensland put their lives in the hands of our highly-skilled ambulance staff and they place great trust in them.
“Only last week paramedics were named Australia’s most trusted profession in the 2012 Reader’s Digest poll for the ninth year running.
“These people consistently touch the lives of their fellow Queenslanders, providing support and care during some of their darkest hours.”
QAS Commissioner Russell Bowles said the level of care provided by the QAS had improved over the years, as had its technology, equipment and training.
“The way in which Triple Zero calls are taken has dramatically changed over the years, from call-takers needing to handwrite case details to the fully-automated computer system we have today,” he said.
“The first-class training our paramedics receive is unparalleled in Australia and university degree programs have now replaced diplomas as the contemporary education pathway for prospective paramedics.
“Advances in areas such as pain relief mean our patients can receive pain medication in some instances without the need for needles.”
Award ceremonies are being held around Queensland across the next two weeks to recognise the remarkable work of QAS ambulance staff and volunteers.
Regional and State Star Care Awards will be presented, alongside special 21st Anniversary Awards in Community, Allied Services and QAS Personnel categories.
