From Thursday, May 29, Kyabram and district residents can rest assured knowing help is on the way and now twice as quickly, with both Ambulance Victoria and the Kyabram CFA being dispatched to cardiac arrest events.
The Fire Medical Response program, a joint initiative of CFA and Ambulance Victoria, aims to improve emergency response times by dispatching both units to critical medical episodes.
Kyabram brigade captain Tom Druggan said the decision to join the program was easy, given the significant benefits it will provide to the local community, including faster response times and increased survival rates.
“What this program means is that community members who call for an ambulance may receive both a fire truck and an ambulance,” Mr Druggan said.
“There is no specific order in which the services arrive to the incident.”
Over the past few months, the team members have undergone intensive training with Ambulance Victoria, focusing on CPR, defibrillator use and other critical life-saving skills to prepare them for select medical call-outs.
“CFA has more than 1100 volunteer fire stations with more than 52,000 members,” CFA acting chief officer Garry Cook said.
“This puts CFA in a unique position to complement the Ambulance Victoria response in 50 locations across Victoria to help deliver early intervention to cardiac arrests.”
Ambulance Victoria executive director of regional operations Danielle North said the Fire Medical Response training undertaken by the Kyabram CFA would improve on cardiac arrest survival figures in rural and regional areas.
“Quick intervention with CPR and a defibrillator has the greatest impact on improving a patient’s chances of surviving a cardiac arrest,” she said.
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