Non-Emergency Response
Non-urgent patient transport is another service provided by the QAS Northern Region. This service is provided to patients who are deemed by a medical practitioner to be unable to travel to medical appointments and back by other means. Reasons for this may be limited mobility, eg requirement for a patient to be transported on a stretcher, or requirement for administration of medical care or medication en-route.
In Townsville/Thuringowa and Bowen this service is provided in part by Patient Transport Officers, whose sole job it is to provide patients with non-urgent transport in a timely manner. In addition, in Townsville/Thuringowa and Bowen and in other regional centres, non-urgent transport is provided by the emergency paramedic crews.
The non-urgent transfers usually need to be booked days in advance. Where the non-urgent cases are undertaken by emergency paramedic crews, any emergency cases will always take priority.
The non-urgent transport service is undertaken every day of the year. In Townsville/Thuringowa the bulk of the transports are undertaken between 7:00 in the morning and 6:00 in the evening. Because of the nature of the facilities at the Townsville Hospital, many of the transfers provided in Townsville are to the hospital for cancer treatment, renal dialysis or hyperbaric treatment.
In 2001/2002 23,558 non-urgent cases were transported in the region. That is an average of about 65 per day!
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