Hervey Bay Needs a Patient Transfer Facility
Did you know that at least five times a day … every day of the week … the Royal Flying Doctor Service flies into town to transfer critically ill patients from Hervey Bay to Brisbane?
Patients who are to be transferred are taken from the hospital to the airport via ambulance at all times of the day and night and are then moved across the open tarmac regardless of weather conditions. If it’s raining the patients get wet … if it’s hot and sunny they’re exposed to that too.
The RFDS staff and ambulance crew do their best to shelter the patients but trying to keep a patient dry with nothing but an umbrella to cope with a downpour while the wind is blowing a gale is all but impossible.
What we really need out at the airport is a facility that allows patients to be transferred to the plane while completely protected from the elements and now a committee has been formed to raise the funds needed to build such a facility out at the airport.
You can read more about the proposed facility and the team who are busy raising the money if you visit the Fraser Coast Patient Transfer Facility website.
May 29th, 2009 at 7:17 am
[...] Hervey Bay Needs a Patient Transfer Facility looked at the work of a small group of very dedicated people who were attempting to raise the money that would be needed to construct a facility that would allow patients to be protected from the elements while the transfer was taking place. [...]