Emergency phone app on way for SA
A mobile phone app allowing faster help for people in life-threatening emergencies will be rolled out in South Australia “as soon as possible”, the Health Minister says.
Chris Picton said he was in discussions with SA Ambulance Service chief executive Rob Elliott about how best to implement the GoodSAM app, which is already in use in Victoria and overseas.
The GoodSAM app can alert registered responders when someone nearby is in cardiac arrest to allow them to provide CPR and defibrillation before emergency services arrive.
“I am very keen that we get the GoodSAM app happening in South Australia as soon as possible,” Picton told reporters yesterday in response to questions from InDaily.
“There’s work underway in relation to this. I hope we’ll have some more news on that shortly.
“This could be another measure that we could have in terms of how we can get deployment of particularly defibrillators across our community as soon as possible.”
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It follows the recent death of a 47-year-old Adelaide father from a suspected heart attack after a lengthy wait for an ambulance, amid high levels of ramping.
The paramedics’ union told InDaily in the aftermath that the GoodSAM app was being considered among measures to prevent another such tragedy.
Picton yesterday said the app could be particularly useful in regional areas, “where even with our additional investment in regional ambulance services you still may be some way away from an ambulance when you need it”.
Asked who in SA would be able to register with the app as a responder and if it would be limited to trained professionals, Picton said: “I think that’s the question that we are working through at the moment – how broad is that scope of people who would be part of that network?”
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“Clearly there’s people who are paramedics and other healthcare professionals who are well trained who could be certainly used as part of that but how broad do you make it for other members of the community?” he said.
“It may well be that it starts on a limited scope of those very well-trained health professionals and we consider how it broadens in scope over time.”
Picton yesterday also announced a team of 28 new emergency call takers and dispatchers was being rolled out by SA Ambulance Service, following a surge of nearly 200 extra triple zero calls a day this winter.
A taskforce is also considering whether fire fighters could help relieve pressure on the state’s stretched ambulance service.
Meanwhile, SA Health chief medical officer Dr Michael Cusack is conducting a review into the death of the man who waited 42 minutes for an ambulance.
“This is an absolutely tragic case and we need to properly investigate this matter, learn the lessons from it and make sure that we embed the learnings of that into our system,” Picton said.
“I understand there has been contact with the family and there will be more of that in coming days and we will certainly have an update as soon as we have a final report.”
Picton said the Government had already committed to releasing the report publicly which he hoped would be ready “in the next couple of weeks”.
