On Call With Singapore’s Emergency Medical Services: When Minutes Can Mean Life Or Death

[Music] F please just Uncle my neighbor he's not moving I don't know want to do down come down your yeah emcy how can I help you my is unconscious and can't really breef I need you to put your hand on his St and feel whether there's any rise and fall no Noah okay we going to start CPR right now we're waiting for the ambulance right [Music] so that means CP being done someone this underground facility in the heart of Ubie is where hundreds of 995 medical emergency calls are answered each day you mentioned that she's unconscious right can you help me to check on her breeding I confirm your address again so you need you're with your patient now okay can I send help very yeah understand the lines are meant 24/7 by staff working in 12-hour ships including nurses civilians and National servicemen any form of bleeding or vomiting blood no okay I need you to listen to me so that you can help the child okay we see very breathless they triarch cases using an advanced Medical protocol system okay I'm getting you helped down there but I got a few more questions to ask you about the patient yeah the most urgent question that we asked right at the beginning of most calls is whether the person is conscious whether the person is breathing normally if they were not conscious and not breathing that would identify cardiac arrest and I would immediately dispatch the ambulance n emergency hello staff sergeant Zaki gets a call from a hotel hello a male what you're old unconscious sir a guest is showing symptoms of cardiac arrest have contct number down there the case is put through immediately to ambulance dispatcher warrant officer Ramy arrest ater thank you we dispatch one ambulance from a nearby fire [Music] station in such cases where the window for resuscitation is critical call takers guide callers in performing CPR until the ambulance arrives we're going to come together yeah okay ready 1 2 3 4 just like this team is doing in another case 9 10 okay any response just continue until the paramedics arrive okay okay turn him to his right side so his breathing is easier this emergency video system lets call takers view the scene through the caller phone just wait for my ambulance ver they already on the way don't worry don't worry over at the hotel the ambulance has arrived they find a hotel staff performing CPR on the guest paramedic Kenna takes over so relatives saw him on the floor then called the wife over then at about 8:00 a.m. then they came in and then they called for is there any breathing on No No 1 2 3 okay go go go go go go go go in numerous medical emergencies time is actually a critical factor for us okay let's keep back in the event of a car arrest when a patient collapses and lost Consciousness without a heartbeat every minute without any intervention done increases the chances of survival by 10% and irreversible brain damage after 10 minutes as the ambulance crew continues to try to restart his heart with shots of adrenaline standing M nowan standby for case of C rest male years old e is 6 minutes at the Singapore General Hospital Emergency Care staff are preparing a resuscitation Bay ahead of the patient's arrival seconds what his hands for his hands in the case of a card arrest if the patient is coming from scdf and brought by ambulance they will be able to bypass the normal process at the emergency department and go straight into the resar station room so this saves a key amount of time anything from 15 minutes to 30 minutes found patient ly in a hotel room uh they're not sure then uh about 8:30 the first C start given him 5 okay the last dose was at 925 sorry I he was actually a he only has history of ihd no other medical problems the family members patient was in critical condition we had to help him breathe we had to insert a tube for him uh we have to administer uh emergency drugs hoping that the drugs can actually restart the heart over at Central fire station another ambulance team is checking their medical supplies and ensuring all equipment works properly the shock test is okay all good all right over a 12-hour shift a crew typically responds to 5 to 7 calls I'm on a day shift we start at 8:00 a.m. in the morning and end at 8:00 p.m. at night so uh there's a call for us yeah there's a [Applause] call al5 will be responding the case turns out to be a construction worker in severe pain now very pain is it okay you got any allergy not 1 2 three up he's unable to walk or move due to the pain so I give do this injection is to help with the pain okay so my assessment he should be placed in P2 we try to categorize the cases according to level of urgency our highest priority would be P1 plus and our lowest priority would be P4 so JY okay episodes right here yeah another crew from Central is attending to an emergency of the highest urgency at a residential camp facility he's an epilepsy patient with symptoms of fits thep was high earlier not [Music] lowp paramedic Andrea administers emergency drugs to stop the [Music] convulsions after we administered the first dose of the daer BAM did not stop fitting that's when we know that it was very uh important to rush him to the hospital as soon as possible because if we don't stop the seizure he may eventually stop breathing or he may go into cardr in the ambulance the patient suffers another seizure episode paramedic Andrea dispenses more emergency drug to manage his fits yeah without such quick interventions continuous fits may lead to permanent brain damage or death okay Hospital okay triple one standby Hotel one for male h of SE is seven mic over send my hot one now Andrea sends critical information like the patient vital signs aead to SGH via an electronic patient management system so that no time is wasted hi sorry standby coming through the paramedics are like our eyes on the ground so that we can imagine what happened at the scene and this helps us to decide what to do next whether we can give the next do of medication immediately or delay it for a while to make sure that we don't cause a treatment side effect fits at 10:05 last about 15 seconds and then at 1010 another 45 seconds and then 1015 30 seconds given total 20 G of desam okay sees are definitely at time sensitive condition so we need to treat them when we see them in other words scdf's timely intervention may have just helped save his life op Center this is Alpha 1155 yeah yeah that's informing you we'll be buying food but we dinner this is uh dinner all right some days there is barely time for meals the patients come [Applause] [Music] first okay let's it up hello this is 995 ambulance am I talking to Mr okay today what happened to you H I feel bre feel breathless is it okay just to confirm you are yeah yeah yeah okay can you stand by your I see so okay we on the way and some colors are more familiar than others he was a 40y old male he's actually quite a frequent caller and his medical complaints are usually along the same line hello hello I hello 95 here yes I Restless it yes when the coding came in today it was uh breathing problems uh P1 plus these are the most uh life threatening cases want to beat yeah everything safe to beat so check on you for do that when I made my initial assessment of him there's no other signs that it was at a moment uh life threatening uh for him okay as paramedics when we go to the scene we don't judge we don't form assumptions immediately we make our checks then we come to a uh diagnosis at the hospital the patient is eventually Tri arched as a P2 or moderate emergency chest pain is a very wide spectrum you can have something as serious as a heart attack but actually 80 to 90% of patients are not having a heart attack they could be having for example a muscular skeletal pain it could be a lung problem it could be indigestion what we call heartburn okay what happened while working he fall down is it so share the seizures as well each day the SDF receives an average of 670 medical emergency calls to its 995 line Alpha 131 you responding we do see more medical cases during the day as compared to night on the eve of a public holidays or even on the Fridays weekends we also do see a increase in our ambulances responding to public entertainment Outlets but not all of these calls are emergencies out of 670 medical calls a day an average of 46 turn out to be non-emergency cases of false alarms what happened to you I was outside and I decided not to feel very good like really hard B dizzy so during that Peri of time you didn't lose Consciousness you didn't uh Fain no I didn't think okay so we just check your blood shom is normal now and your blood pressure is normal as well okay Co so you feel better now I'm feeling better so in that case right I would just TR you in us if you do feel unwell again you can visit a PO Clinic platform so they will know what happen to you and your V at this point in time thank you so much in cases assessed to be non-emergencies we will recommend that they visit the nearest general practitioner clinic Poly Clinic or consult their tele Health provider alternatively they may call 17 for the non-emergency ambulance the wine glass is it but it's a clean glass right okay this dressing it's a non-stick dressing so I give you one in case let's say you need to change just turn too small to C around the okay this small cut only when our paramedics arrive at scene and they assess the patient and deem that it's a non-emergency they will not convey to the nearest hospital my advice is you go to Poly Clinic let them take a look they can do teaching based on the protocol of a P4 non-convenience our paramedics will perform a treat and discharge using the necessary medications and appliance that they have other but tending to such cases can come at a potential cost to someone else in a genuine emergency consider a scenario where an individual who experiences RIS pain calls 995 this takes vital resources away from life threatening emergencies such as card arrest sometimes even when it's not an emergency patients still insist on being conveyed to the hospital okay so what actually happened so your C like CR is it but you didn't fall or anything right any other pain or not no I everything is okay this one I can tell you is not emergency you don't want to go CL so you want to go hospital to get it check is it when non-emergency cases arrive at the hospital they don't get the same priority treatment as emergency patients after being tried they must wait to see a specialist we actually have to prioritize who we see first and who we treat first based on the limited resources that we have patients that are in priority 3 or even priority 2 would have to face a longer waiting time such patients are also subject to a $274 fee which applies to non-emergency cases conveyed to hospital by scdf most private ambulance services charge from $90 to $260 for a trip to the A&E if a patient comes in with a non-emergency they actually taking up resources time and attention from our emergency care providers which would be diverted away from other patients that might be having a true [Music] emergency there's this concept called the Golden hour of trauma this means that what happens in the first 60 minutes after you sustain an injury has the biggest impact on whether you live or you die can we get the vitals up we're going to do the stabilization now can let's go minutes are important and the earlier that you get appropriate treatment and Care the better the outcomes for [Music] you so what counts as an emergency situations like traffic accidents uncontrollable bleeding overdoses and choking non-emergency cases include cough flu a small bruise or a [Music] cut if you're still unsure about how you feel there are options go to a Poly Clinic see a GP reach out to 24-hour urgent care centers connect with tele medicine providers or the nurse first help online if any of these Services direct you to call 995 please don't hesitate just to make sure that everything is safe for [Music] you throughout my career in scdf I realize that my role really makes a difference to people's lives especially when you see that your efforts is not gone to waste they smile at you at the end of the day and they say thank you this is a job that is very meaningful how was your shift last night one of the aspects I enjoy about this job is the Kama Ry there's nothing quite like going out together with a single purpose to help someone okay M end of the day I know it may be a stranger to me but it could be the last time or that the last few hours that they can be with their family members so reminds me of why I actually want to do this job and it also Spurs me further to actually be a better paramedic for all my patients I try my best to help you [Music] okay1 location we want to ensure that the patient has been given the best medical attention as much as possible by conveying them to the hospital1 Del can I confirm you have patient we really hope that this patient help us to survive that will give us a lot of accomplishment gives us a sense of our happiness and today we have saved a life together as one big [Music] [Music] family

Channel: CNA Insider

Views: 340,002

Keywords: CNA Insider, Channel NewsAsia, People stories, Asian perspectives

Id: 9PjWLStxWCc

Length: 20min 27sec (1227 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 07 2024