The ambulance that was sent to treat a 10-year-old child who ended up dying in an Alice Springs home last month was downgraded from a priority one response to a less urgent one by St John Ambulance NT, the union representing paramedics has said, but the ambulance service rejected that the call was downgraded and said the response was appropriate.
The allegation of the downgrading of the response follows the NT Independent reporting in June that the death of a man who was treated by St John Ambulance in 2021 was investigated by the NT Police Major Crime Squad earlier in the year, including allegations the patient’s records were altered to cover up treatment failures.
I have several interesting stories about SJA, but the actual paramedics attending the emergency. I have been in Healthcare for 6 yrs in the Northern Territory, and I lodged complaints about their behaviour and attitudes. And perhaps, if not for the exceptional nursing care the clients received prior, those clients may have died too.