Patient Transport Service
The patient transport service is our non-emergency transport service and takes patients to and from their pre-arranged hospital and medical appointments. It is available to patients who are not well enough to travel by private or public transport and whose condition is not life threatening. All requests for non-emergency transport must be authorised by a doctor or medical practitioner.
Examples of non-emergency stretcher ambulance transport include:
- Admission to hospital from home
- Discharges from hospital to home
- Inter hospital transfers
- Transports to and from nursing homes
- Transports to and from specialist and diagnostic centres
- Transfer of patients to and from Air Ambulance / airports
- Patients requiring day treatment
The patient transport service uses Ford Transit vehicles which have a green and white checkerboard pattern to differentiate
them from an emergency ambulance, which has red and white markings.
It is staffed by patient transport officers who undertake a four-week inservice training program at the Ambulance Education Centre and are trained in basic first aid with advanced resuscitation. They have the ability to administer oxygen and monitor pulse and breathing rates but are not taught blood pressure, cardiac monitoring or permitted to administer any medications or manage patients on intravenous fluids.
Interested
in becoming a patient transport officer? Visit our employment section for more information.