Ambulance elbow room

In all, there are 17 ambulances, some in a much better condition than others. Those ambulances which are in a better condition are normally used for emergency cases, as these are fully equipped with immobilisation, suction and extrication devices - equipment which is crucial and necessary in life-saving circumstances. The other ambulances are not usually used for emergency calls because they are unequipped and in a poor condition.

When the emergency nurses go out on emergency calls, at times, garage staff send up these older and unequipped ambulances (even though there will be proper ones available in the garage) and nurses are left with no option but to go out as quickly as possible and offer emergency care to those needing it at that time. It is frustrating for nurses to work on these ambulances when they know that these are not appropriate for emergency calls and several reports have been written by the nurses themselves (last one on June 1) about the poor state of these ambulances. In the reports, many factors have been mentioned as to why the nurses feel that these ambulances should just be used for transport cases or should be scrapped altogether. These are namely: the strong smell of petrol in the ambulances; they are not well-equipped; they are dirty and are not well-kept.

In addition, these ambulances have stopped several times while going out for emergency cases (and therefore other ambulances have to be sent from St Luke's Hospital, wasting more precious time for the patient). Furthermore, these ambulances are just too slow for emergency calls. When one considers that, at times, nurses have to go out on emergency calls in places which are quite a distance from St Luke's Hospital (such as Mellieha), slow or unreliable ambulances are not seen as the most pleasant scenario for the nurse at that time!

There is enough responsibility for the nurse trying to save somebody's life instead of trying to sort out these unnecessary, ridiculous situations, which could have been easily avoided. The only person who is suffering in this situation is the patient and not the nurse who has no "elbow room". At the end of the day, nurses have written several reports only for the benefit of the patient - if they did not care about this matter, they would not even bother writing such lengthy reports.

It is absolutely not the case that the emergency nurses want larger ambulances because there is more "elbow space" or they are "more comfortable". We are not talking about saunas or massage parlours here, but we are looking at what should be right for a patient in an emergency situation. Nurses complain about these ambulances because, as professionals, they believe that every patient needing emergency care has the right to the highest standard of quality and has the right to be treated in the most professional way possible, especially in ambulances which at least do not stop half way or which are not equipped with emergency devices! Nurses are only asking for appropriate ambulances to be sent up from the garage, especially when they know that these are available.

In addition, ambulance drivers and garage staff do not have the right to interfere in deciding which ambulances are appropriate to use for emergencies and those which are not. They are not the ones who are taking care of the patient. What is really funny and ironic to the nurses is how, when various heads of state and the Pope came to Malta and also during the Small Nations Games, the best ambulances were used!

Of course, with foreigners visiting our country, we cannot make fools of ourselves and show them the mickey mouse-like vehicles that we have, which keep stopping and spitting out petrol from everywhere!