site.btaParamedics Union Proposes Purchase of Additional Equipment to Help Lift, Transport Patients

The Union of Paramedics in Bulgaria (UPB) proposes in a letter addressed to Health Minister Hristo Hinkov the purchase of additional equipment, which can facilitate the work of emergency medical service teams when lifting and transporting patients. The necessary sum for the purchase is not large, but the benefits for paramedics and patients will be huge, the UPB said in a press release here on Monday.

UPB Chair Iva Pehlivanska recalled that there have been instances when emergency medical responders have been forced to seek help from neighbours and family to lift and transport seriously injured people, who are unable to get to the ambulance on their own. "You feel powerless when there is no one to help, I have pleaded with passers-by who have refused. The question of "who should carry the patient" is very topical in recent days, but unfortunately the comments are polarized and divide the emergency medicine professionals instead of uniting them," Pehlivanska said.

In situations when no friends or relatives are not found to help, emergency medics seek assistance from other services, which wastes valuable time for the patient, the UPB argues.

According to the emergency medicine standards, moving an emergency patient is defined as a core professional competency in the list of activities for all mobile emergency teams, and in carrying out their missions they are obliged to use all available options to transport the patient to hospital, and in case of a problem, including with transporting the patient from their home to the ambulance, to seek help through the regional coordination centre. However, with the equipment available in the ambulance, it is difficult and sometimes impossible to lift a motionless and heavy person, especially if the medical team is made up of women, or older medics, the paramedics' union also pointed out.