Ambulances need satellite navigation

Sat Nav: No, it is not Saturday Nativity or Speed At The New 'Arms' Vehicular waiting park. It is something very strange and weird that the rest of the world has welcomed with open arms and in this particular circumstance can save many lives: "Satellite Navigation".

Three times within the past few years we had the need of an emergency ambulance and upon those occasions they have sped from their depot with blue lights and sirens going, speeding through busy traffic on their way to St Paul's Bay area. only to come to a full stop when they arrive in the locale because - and everyone who has had the misfortune to have to use this service knows what happens next - they cannot find the address so revert to phoning you for instructions.

In the first instance it took 20 minutes to find our apartment in Qawra and the other two even longer and a stop at Qawra Police Station to ask where we were (St Paul's Bay). The latter was for a lady who died and was revived on the way to Mater Dei with a police escort (she is alive and alright now).

When the crew of the emergency vehicle came up in the lift I asked them if they had heard of Sat Nav and they had no idea what I was talking about. Every emergency vehicle should be equipped with it, then all they have to do is put the post-code in and follow the instructions. A bulk purchase would cost about €100 per vehicle, a small amount for a human life.

While on the subject of saving lives in medical emergencies, in most EU countries they have paramedic emergency vehicles with fully trained personnel able to do essential resuscitation techniques en route with communication systems that give them direct access to fully qualified trauma doctors who can aid their treatment of severe cases such as heart attacks, etc. You only send such a vehicle to call-outs where it is obvious that specialist on the spot treatment is required.

I am not castigating the current coverage as they do a fantastic job in circumstances (infamous road surfaces, holiday season and peak traffic times) that their European counterparts would find almost impossible to carry out.

A short antidote on one such journey when I was the patient which felt like a Keystone Cops episode; I was strapped onto the stretcher en route to Mater Dei and every pot-hole the ambulance hit I was forced backwards toward the rear doors. My wife and the medic had to keep pulling me up the trolley when my feet touched the rear doors. Even though very ill it still strikes me as hilarious and so silent movie like, imagining what, or where, I would have ended up if the doors had opened.