Ms ROSOL – Thank you. I appreciate the bigger picture, but I also would love some information on those particular things.
We’ve been hearing concerns raised by paramedics about some critically important specialised equipment, particularly the portable suction units used to manage airways during cardiac arrests. Apparently, there have been concerns raised and safety reports made about the fact that the suction pressure in the equipment is too low to effectively deal with some cases. And not only that, but the units operate off the same oxygen tanks that also feed the patient’s oxygen supply which means that the tanks need to be frequently changed during a serious resuscitation effort. Are you aware of these concerns and what’s your response?
Mr BARNETT – Thanks very much for the question. I’ve had two roundtables with the Health and Community Services Union (HACSU) in the last few months. I appreciated both those roundtables, the collaborative positive feedback, and I’ve certainly taken that into account in terms of the specificity of the concerns you’ve raised.
That doesn’t – I don’t think it’s come before me directly, but I’m sure that the chief executive would respond to that and hopefully assist the member.
Mr EMERY – Thank you, minister. It is a good question. I’ve used those suction devices many times over my career on patients in cardiac arrest and it is correct that the suction requires a drawing down of oxygen from the same oxygen cylinder.
At Ambulance Tasmania for our cardiac arrest patients, we have procedures in place to respond additional ambulances so it would be very unusual for us to respond only a single ambulance to a patient in cardiac arrest. The purpose of that is because they are intensive resuscitations that require a number of resources and we’ve been very focused on high performance CPR as part of our training to support care of those patients experiencing cardiac arrest in the community, alongside significant work done to mobilise more community AEDs to keep people safe and ensure early access to defibrillation.
I’m not familiar with particular issues as it relates to the suction devices other than there are challenges troubleshooting those devices from time to time and particularly if a patient in cardiac arrest has substantial volumes of vomitus in their airway. That can affect the efficacy of those suction units but in circumstances where there might be a safety event or a clinical incident involving a suction unit, we would encourage our workforce to report that in the safety reporting and learning system that exists across the Department of Health and we can act on that information by addressing individual device faults.
Ms ROSOL – Thank you. It sounds like there are still concerns around that then. Is it possible to follow up and to seek feedback on that from paramedics and just get a handle on that situation and what might be needed there, please?
Mr BARNETT – I believe the chief executive has responded reasonably comprehensively. I’m more than happy to add to the answer if you can.
Mr EMERY – We could review the number of safety reporting and learning system events that have been logged as it relates to suction units. We meet fortnightly to review all safety reporting and learning system events and that’s oversighted by our Executive Director of Clinical Services and our Executive Medical Director. We can look at that data to see if there’s a trend. Ordinarily that would be picked up through those fortnightly meetings and work through various parts of Ambulance Tasmania to address those concerns.
Ms ROSOL – Is that something that we could put as a question on notice, please?
Mr BARNETT – Yes.
Mr BARNETT – I’ve got two answers to provide if you want to get that, one from the acting secretary and one from the chief executive to Ms Rosol, if you’d like to hear that.
Ms HADDAD – You do keep providing those answers to other members when I have the call, it seems. I ‘m happy to wait.
Mr BARNETT – Well, let’s have your question then.
Ms HADDAD – I’m happy to wait as long as I can retain the call, Chair.
CHAIR – Yes, you retain the call.
Mr BARNETT – Perhaps the chief executive.
Mr EMERY – My team have just completed a review, Ms Rosol. Over the last 10 years there’s been 26 incidents of catheter – sorry, safety incidents reported around suction, so about 2.6 incidents a year. I’ve just been advised we are in the process of rolling out a new type of suction catheter. That is a DuCanto catheter. It’s a larger bore; it addresses some of the blockage issues with the catheter itself. We’re in the process of training paramedics in a new suction procedure. It is called the SALAD procedure, which is suction-assisted laryngoscopy airway decontamination. It’s a technical procedure that particularly assists with substantial amounts of vomitus in the airway. This new suction device that is being rolled out, or this new catheter that’s being rolled out will assist in that.
