The medical calls, also known as ‘purple calls’ include any emergency situation that may be life-threatening. This could include suicides, cot-deaths, heart attacks, strokes, and cardiac arrests.
It follows a Memorandum of Understanding signed by FENZ and St John in 2014, who co-ordinate to ensure faster responses to emergencies and better outcomes for patients.
But now, firefighters face the potential of responding to even more medical calls, including not just ‘purple calls.’
A new agreement currently being drafted includes a clause that states: ‘Other incidents by exception’ which has the New Zealand Professional Firefighters Union concerned they will also be called to less serious medical calls.
The union’s president, Ian Wright, said at times firefighters are responding to births.
Out of the eight city fire stations, not including the volunteer stations, Christchurch City Station has responded to the most medical calls this year, 103 so far.
Wigram was the second highest with 81 medical calls so far this year, which is looking to surpass its 2018 figure of 113 medical calls.
Back in 2012, the station only responded to 24 calls of this type all year.
Spreydon station was the third highest with 75 medical calls this year so far. Last year it had 87 in total.
In 2012, it only responded to 12 all year.
Since the 2014 MOU was signed, the survival rate for cardiac arrests has increased from 12 per cent to 18 per cent.
“In some parts of the country, the nearest fire station is a lot closer than the nearest ambulance,” FENZ spokeswoman Jenny Stevens said.
But it’s not all positive.
Last month, The Star reported increased medical calls attended by firefighters were having a major impact on their mental health.
The union says it has reached a “crisis point.”
By 2018, about 10 firefighters in New Zealand had committed suicide.
FENZ provides a range of mental and psychological services to its staff, including counselling, workshops, professional psychologists, peer supporters, dedicated safety, health and well-being advisers, a health monitoring programme, psychological first aid resources, chaplaincy and Maori-based support services.
But, New Zealand Professional Firefighters Union general secretary Wattie Watson and Christchurch-based firefighter Gary Duncan say staff need better mental and emotional training before they reach a point where they need to seek help.
When the 2014 MOU was signed, no extra training for emotional trauma was provided.
Said Ms Watson: “There is an issue around the training of medical response, it’s not good enough. It should have always been coupled with mental health resilience and it wasn’t, and that’s a learning curve for everyone.”
Said Mr Duncan: “We got an email about the memorandum of understanding, but we called it the memorandum of misunderstanding. Next minute we were getting all these calls to medicals and we were going:
‘Hang on, we haven’t had any extra training, we want extra training’.”
It comes after the Office of the Chief Coroner revealed in August that suicides have risen by 42 per cent in the region, since 2007-2008.
BY THE NUMBERS
Total number of medical calls answered by Canterbury fire stations:
2012: 181
2013: 234
2014: 589
2015: 563
2016: 780
2017: 718
2018: 758
2019 (up until October 4): 570
