The Daily Telegraph reported this on Thursday 6th May 2010 from research commissioned by the National Heart Foundation of Australia.
Some thoughts….
Stubborn pensioners – they would delay an ambulance regardless of the circumstances. That’s just the way they are. Avoiding a bill is not in their motivation. They have survived through real periods of upheaval, such as World War 2. What’s little bit of chest pain or abdo pain is their attitude. More people should show an ounce of this attitude instead of calling an ambulance for every stubbed toe.
Expectations – so much is given to the general public for free, which really means no direct cost to the public. This creates unrealistically high expectations of the public health system. Endless demand yet limited supply and people want it at their beck and call in their timing.
The Bill – what people are charged (if you don’t have a pension card or private health) is only a fraction of what it costs to put highly trained, highly skilled health professionals on the road. NSW is the most subsidised Ambulance Service in the country.
Adding value – if $300 is too much to pay for highly trained highly skilled health professionals to be at your door within 10 minutes in the Sydney metro region and then transport you to hospital then your priorities are severely mixed up!! Good health comes before money. If not that then perhaps you don’t really need an ambulance after all as your situation is not an emergency.
Just pay something – people take for granted the costs of ambulance services. Fitting out the vehicle alone costs upwards of $100,000. Then there’s training, equipment, uniforms and most importantly, wages of the highly trained, highly skilled health professionals. People need to pay something to realise these services don’t come cheaply and that they are privileged to have such a service so readily available. Perhaps a variable fee scale based on the triage category at hospital could work.
Universal coverage – a good idea in theory but I fear it will result in further abuse of the system as there is no value placed on the service by the general public
I’ll Die Before I Pay
Heart attack victims delay calling costly ambulance
By Sue Dunlevy
ONE in five people would hesitate to call an ambulance if they were having a heart attack because of the high cost, a study has found………
Some thoughts….
Stubborn pensioners – they would delay an ambulance regardless of the circumstances. That’s just the way they are. Avoiding a bill is not in their motivation. They have survived through real periods of upheaval, such as World War 2. What’s little bit of chest pain or abdo pain is their attitude. More people should show an ounce of this attitude instead of calling an ambulance for every stubbed toe.
Expectations – so much is given to the general public for free, which really means no direct cost to the public. This creates unrealistically high expectations of the public health system. Endless demand yet limited supply and people want it at their beck and call in their timing.
The Bill – what people are charged (if you don’t have a pension card or private health) is only a fraction of what it costs to put highly trained, highly skilled health professionals on the road. NSW is the most subsidised Ambulance Service in the country.
Adding value – if $300 is too much to pay for highly trained highly skilled health professionals to be at your door within 10 minutes in the Sydney metro region and then transport you to hospital then your priorities are severely mixed up!! Good health comes before money. If not that then perhaps you don’t really need an ambulance after all as your situation is not an emergency.
Just pay something – people take for granted the costs of ambulance services. Fitting out the vehicle alone costs upwards of $100,000. Then there’s training, equipment, uniforms and most importantly, wages of the highly trained, highly skilled health professionals. People need to pay something to realise these services don’t come cheaply and that they are privileged to have such a service so readily available. Perhaps a variable fee scale based on the triage category at hospital could work.
Universal coverage – a good idea in theory but I fear it will result in further abuse of the system as there is no value placed on the service by the general public
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2 comments:
maybe we should start paying an ambulance cover in our electricity bills like they do in QLD then everyone would be covered....although then we could whinge about our elec bills being higher ..
we have ambulance cover it costs next to nothin in the scheme of things!
My brother had an accident on a motorbike many years ago and they had to call an ambulance. Saved his life - well, God did that ultimately, but if it wasn't for the ambulance he wouldn't have gotten the medical help he needed as quickly as he did.
After that we all started taking out ambulance cover too. As Becc says, hardly costs anything. We are very fortunate to have such great facilities (and skilled professionals!) available to us!
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