A Country Fire Authority station in north east Victoria is pushing for the volunteers' skills and equipment to be better utilised to help save lives during medical emergencies.
Kiewa CFA Captain Aaron Wallace lobbied for his brigade to become a trial site in offering Level Two First Aid Response to life-threatening Priority Code Zero calls to local residents, who regularly wait up to 25 minutes for an ambulance.
Mr Wallace said 80 per cent of Kiewa CFA members were first aid trained, and they were equipped with lifesaving equipment that sits unused for most of the year.
The CFA has over 1,200 fire stations in Victoria and a 54,000-strong volunteer membership, which Mr Wallace believed could help fill the emergency medical response gap in country Victoria.
"What we want to do is protect our community members, that's what is most important, that's why we joined the CFA.
"With members keen to do things why not use the state resource that's already here?"
Volunteers ready but waiting
Emergency Medical Response (EMR) teams are part of a formal agreement between Ambulance Victoria and Fire Rescue Victoria that dispatch firefighters at the same time as paramedics to a small number of priority code zero cases.
EMR is being rolled out to all co-located CFA fire stations.
Co-located stations include both career and volunteer firefighters.
Following the implementation of Fire Rescue Victoria in 2020, the CFA has seven brigades that now provide EMR support alongside Ambulance Victoria: Edithvale, Berwick, Whittlesea, South Morang, Cranbourne, Mornington and Patterson River.
Mr Wallace said rural communities far from co-located stations and where ambulance waiting times are higher should not miss out on these opportunities, particularly when the CFA has life-saving equipment, trained first aid volunteers, a radio network and paging system.
The CFA's chief executive officer, Natalie MacDonald, outlined in a letter to Mr Wallace that the CFA was exploring additional medical response options with Ambulance Victoria, with the aim of seeking Minister support.
Ambulance Victoria considering CFA support
Ambulance Victoria was in active talks with the CFA to deliver a first response program in partnership with a number of brigades across regional Victoria.
"Ambulance Victoria is committed to improving out-of-hospital cardiac arrest survival rates across Victoria," Ambulance Victoria Hume Acting Hume Regional Director Narelle Capp said.
"We engage with a wide range of community organisations including CFA, to provide rapid assistance in those first critical minutes of cardiac arrest whilst paramedics are on the way."
She encouraged all members of the community who are aged 18 years and over to register as GoodSAM Responders.
GoodSAM is a smartphone app that alerts registered community members to nearby cases of suspected cardiac arrest, allowing them to provide life-saving chest compressions or use a public-access defibrillator prior to emergency service arrival.
Mr Wallace said the CFA could be a better option than GoodSAM due to volunteer numbers and easy access to lifesaving equipment, and that other rural CFA sites have contacted him to share their interest and support for the concept.
The talks have been welcomed by the Victorian government that's invested $46.7 million to implement the EMR program at all FRV stations and seven CFA brigades
"We welcome any discussions between Ambulance Victoria and CFA to expand this program further and provide additional life-saving medical assistance to more Victorians."
