An ambulance is a vehicle equipped to provide emergency care to sick or injured people and to get them to hospital.
Dr Simon Sawyer is a Registered Paramedic and he is the Director of Education at the Australian Paramedical College.
When to call an ambulance
He says one should call triple zero (000) and ask for an ambulance when there is an emergency, such as when someone:
- is having something like a heart attack or you think they're having a heart attack
- has unexplained chest pain or chest tightness
- has suddenly lost consciousness or was suddenly weak or numb or paralysed
- in case of seizures; traumatic injuries, falls from large heights where you've injured yourself
- has been a victim of violence like being stabbed or shot
- has been burnt, and it's particularly important to call the ambulance for children.
You should call triple zero (000) if someone is seriously injured or needs urgent medical help. Credit: PixelsEffect/Getty Images
Dr Simon Sawyer says in some circumstances locating the patient can prove very difficult, so it’s important to give as clear information as possible.
"If you are somewhere that it's difficult to locate, unless you tell us exactly where you are, we don't know where you are," he said.
"So if you are in the middle of a music festival, if you're in the middle of a supermarket, if you're on a farm and you don't have proper street signs and maybe you don't have a letterbox with your number up, we have no way of knowing where you are".
Anyone can call 000
Calls to Triple Zero are free and can be made 24 hours a day, seven days a week from any landline, pay phone or mobile phone.
It’s not necessary to have phone credit to call 000, explained Dr Simon Sawyer.
"Anyone can use the Triple Zero service. You don't need to be a subscriber, you don't need to be a citizen. Children can call, adults can call. You can be on holidays, anywhere in Australia".
"You can be in a state you're not normally living in. You don't even need to be at home," said Dr Simon Sawyer.
If someone has speech or hearing impairments, they can text 106, which is a text based service.
Calls to 000 can be made also if there is no credit left on the phone. Source: Moment RF / skaman306/Getty Images
What happens when you call triple zero
The person who answers your triple zero call will ask you questions to decide whether it is an emergency.
"So your answers to the questions are really important," explained Dr Sawyer.
"They'll ask you what the actual problem is, so be as specific as possible. Speaking as a paramedic, it's important for me to know exactly what I'm going to for a number of reasons."
"So you might say, for example, I've had a car accident. My partner isn't breathing, my partner's got chest pain, something like that. They'll ask how many people are sick or injured.
"Again, that's important because if it's just one, maybe just one ambulance will be enough, but if there's three people that are injured, one ambulance won't be enough and we might just need to send more," he explained.
Knowing the age and sex of the injured is also important for the paramedics be as prepared as possible, said Dr Sawyer.
"Age, particularly if you're a very young child or very elderly person, or in between, I might need to start considering what medications I'm gonna give and what doses. I need to prepare things".
"When they're asking for the sex, this is just something that might help us identify you, particularly if you're in a public place. It's okay to tell us and tell the call takers if you don't identify as one of the binary genders or sex," he added.
A paramedic may stay on the phone with you until the ambulances arrives. Source: AAP / RICHARD WAINWRIGHT/AAPIMAGE
Does an ambulance get sent over for every call?
Lindsay Mackay is the Ambulance Victoria Acting Executive Director Operational Communications.
Ms Mackay says not all calls to triple zero result in an ambulance being dispatched.
"Once you've provided all your information to the call taker, they'll then make a decision through the system and they'll either say that, 'Yep, this is a really big emergency, and yes, you need an ambulance', and they'll send you an ambulance with a paramedic [or not].
"One in five calls in Australia don't require an emergency ambulance," said Ms Mackay.
"And in Victoria, they'll come to our secondary triage team, so then you'll be connected to a highly experienced paramedic or a nurse and they'll do a clinical triage and they'll ask you lots of kind of medical questions to figure out how they can they best support you, which may not mean that you need an ambulance".
If they do not consider it an emergency they may try and connect you with a doctor, a pharmacy, they may send a doctor out to you or a nurse if you've got an injury, explained Ms Mackay.
Types of vehicles used
There are several types of ambulance, all specially equipped and including:
- vans (the most common type of ambulance)
- four-wheel drives
- motorbikes
- buses
- airplanes
- helicopters
Different types of vehicles are used as ambulances, including helicopters. Source: AAP / DIEGO FEDELE/AAPIMAGE
A provisional diagnosis
Once they are on the scene, the paramedics will come up with a provisional diagnosis, says Dr Sawyer.
"Once we arrive, our job is to assess you and figure out what's wrong with you. We'll ask you about your symptoms. We'll ask a lot of questions about your past medical history as well, and if you have allergies and if you're on medications".
"All that information we use to try and form a, we call it a provisional diagnosis — what we think is wrong with," he explained.
Usually an ambulance will take you to the nearest hospital, unless it's needed to drive to a bigger hospital.
If you live in Tasmania, the state government waives the ambulance costs in most cases. Source: AAP / ROB BLAKERS/AAPIMAGE
Who pays for the ambulance call?
Medicare does not cover the cost of ambulance services.
The charges, if you call an ambulance or if someone else orders an ambulance for you, vary between states.
State ambulance services may charge a call-out fee or a per kilometre fee or both.
Queensland and Tasmania have free ambulance cover for all residents.
"In other states and territories, you have to pay for a membership. It's important to note, you can still use the ambulance service if you don't have a membership, but you might have to pay," explained Dr Sawyer..
Dr Sawyer recommends to contact your state ambulance service.
"You can go through their website or you can call them. You don't call triple zero. You would call the ambulance service and ask whether you fall into the category of needing a membership or not. And they will be able to advise you," he said.
"If you do need a membership, they're cheap. They're usually around $50 a year for a single person or around di $100 dollars for a family".
"If you've got private health insurance, sometimes the ambulance cover is included in that," he added.
To find out more about the fees in your state, visit:
Ambulance costs may be reduced or removed for aged pensioner concession holders, health care concession card holders and Department of Veterans Affairs Gold Card holders in some states.