PATIENT TRANSPORTATION

Increasing knowledge, therapeutic armaments and branching specialization necessitate specific education of the general practitioner to enable him to offer total patient care. Regional and rational hospital planning requires more attention to patient transport in central metropolitan and more isolated areas. Methods used in an isolated Victorian country town with road and later local air ambulance, initially for local population and later for sick and injured from Snowy Mountains Authority works, are described. An outline is given of the Victorian Air Ambulance Service's transportation in routine and emergency cases, and of the provision, with road ambulances, of a rational, integrated, economic patient service. Planning envisages a centrally based helicopter service for interhospital, airport to hospital, near city and emergency use. The general practitioner, faced with complex traumatic and diagnostic problems and with appreciation of available services, must work in close association with specifically designed patient transport services, particularly in rural areas. He must be made aware of the problems, methods of patient assessment and preparation before transport, and communications available and required. He should assist with training and be trained as a student in the university, a resident medical officer, during vocational training and in his practice with continuing education. A plea is entered for all concerned in health to take an active interest in total patient care and its problems during patient transportation.