The Council of Ambulance Authorities (CAA) is the peak industry body representing eleven statutory providers of ambulance services across Australia, New Zealand, and Papua New Guinea.
CAA works to advance the mission of ambulance services to provide excellence in pre-hospital care by pursuing strategic engagement with state, territory, and national governments and allied organisations in the health sector
The CAA Board is comprised of chief executives from each member service. Standing committees are selected from senior executives at each ambulance service according to their expertise, experience, and interest
CAA provides a range of forums and working groups for CAA member services and individuals to share their groundbreaking research for the benefit of peers, the broader health community, and the public.
CAA's challenge this year, same as for many of us, was coming to terms after a prolonged pandemic and a world that was eager to get back to normality. A mix of virtual and in-person events and meetings, coupled with a fear of the new pandemic wave has seen most of us review our priorities.
With many sectors embracing new working conditions, our sector too looked at how our services can be delivered within these new requirements. Virtual EDs and telehealth and non-transfer options were just a few initiatives that took flight to help with high rising demand and limitations for in-person attendance.
As always technology provides a solution and we are seeing a growth in great new systems and tools that will no doubt leave a lasting legacy when the pandemic is long forgotten.
CAA has provided wonderful support during the pandemic years and the exchange of information and experiences have been greatly appreciated and acted upon.
As years go this was a challenging one. Demand growth on the back of a pandemic that still clings on, our sector has started seeing effects from long-term high pressure events.
CAA Committees, Forums and Working Groups continue to provide networking opportunities and knowledge exchange and it has been wonderful seeing our members getting back to in-person meetings and events.
CAA Congress is an event we all look forward to and after a two-year break we are excited to be able to learn and network together The CAA Team has as always outdone themselves when it comes to program and speakers, and the many networking events will no doubt provide a welcome opportunity to catch up with colleagues.
I always look forward to seeing the entries for the CAA Awards for Excellence and given the push our sector experienced during last two years of the pandemic, this will no doubt impact the programs and projects up for 2022 CAA Awards for Excellence.
We were excited to bring to the front the CAA Women in Leadership Scholarship, winners to be announced at the CAA Awards Gala Dinner. With over 120 applicants in its inaugural year, this is an initiative that will be around for many years to come, shining the light on the many incredible women working in the ambulance sector and providing them with learning and personal development opportunities.
Campaigns such as Restart a Heart, Mental Health and Wellbeing, Sustainable Ambulance and Hand Hygiene Day provide for important awareness raising activities both internal facing and external to our members.
The importance of our sector working together and collaboratively has never been so prominent as in the last few years when we were faced with the pandemic and now unprecedented high demand What the future of the ambulance sector and indeed CAA looks like is being addressed in the new 5year CAA Strategy. One thing is certain; collaboration, networking and knowledge sharing will always sit at the forefront of everything we do.
Looking back at the past year, and indeed reflecting on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the work of our members and the sector seems to grow rapidly. Not only in demand and response to the pandemic, but also adapting to changes in workforce demand, technological advances and clinical requirements and changes.
With this in mind the CAA has at the end of this financial year commenced work on the next 5-year strategy While we are in early days we know some of the key issues that will no doubt influence the strategy; sustainability of our sector, workforce demands and changes, demand and ways to manage the ever increasing growth, among others.
We will work with our members and Board to gain their views and thoughts on our future, and we will look further afield into the health sector both Australasian and abroad to build our future strategy.
Our partners in the ambulance sector, organisations such as the Australasian College of Paramedicine, APHRA's Board of Paramedics and others remain our key friends in looking after the sector and its workforce.
It is great to see our world is slowly returning to normal, with some valued learnings from the pandemic on how to be flexible and appreciating just how resilient we all truly are.
With the continuation of the COVID-19 pandemic from previous years, we knew 202122 would be just as unpredictable As the year progressed, we learnt to adapt and shift to the ever-changing COVID-19 rules. 2021-22 continued to bring new obstacles when dealing with COVID-19 with vaccine rollouts, borders opening up to the rest of the world, and new variants bringing with them new waves and new restrictions.
When interstate and international borders opened, it meant travel was back on the cards, and we were glad to have several meetings in person, despite many of our groups continuing to meet virtually
The biggest challenge we faced this past financial year was the ever growing demand for Australasian ambulance services. On average demand increased by 20% across our members with some even seeing demand grow by 30% in certain times.
Calls to 000/111 have seen a large increase and ramping of ambulance crews at emergency departments, that have risen to unprecedented levels To help with calls to the public to think about when to call 000, the CAA rolled out an Australian-wide public campaign 'Save Triple Zero (000) for Emergencies'. The campaign was rolled out across television, radio, and social media to remind Australians to call triple zero only when necessary.
Our members encountered workforce challenges following prolonged COVID-19 intense periods which have impacted staff's wellbeing and health, and restrictions around exposure to COVID-19 put a huge strain on the sector.
And like many other sectors we too are facing workforce and workplace challenges arising in this post-COVID world, dealing with staff shortages, staff leaving the industry, and new work/life balance requirements, all the while trying to maintain 24/7 emergency services delivery for our communities.
While 2021-22 was no doubt a challenging year, we do see the light at the end of the tunnel. COVID-19 restrictions are easing, the flu season was not as bad as initially predicted, governments are investing and focusing on ambulance and health sectors like never before, and our teams keep being amazing and looking after their patients.
2021-22 saw CAA committees, forums and working groups respond to the increase in demand and begin planning the road to recovery from the pandemic. CAA and its members spent numerous meetings sharing the latest developments and news, supporting each other, and sharing advice in these ever changing and unpredictable times
The Aeromedical Working Group meet regularly focusing predominately on COVID-19 related challenges.
Increased workload, vaccination rollouts, and helicopter underwater escape training (HUET) were discussed regularly at meetings
The group focused on aeromedical crewing models, PPE and uniform requirements, flexible work agreements and fatigue and heat policies.
The Ambulance Education Committee continued to oversee education of our members, while working alongside the APHRA Paramedic Board & Universities in ensuring employer requirements are reflected in paramedic courses in Australia and New Zealand.
Services continued to train their staff to deliver COVID- 19 vaccinations to their teams and the wider community
Education was largely delivered online, however some courses returned to face-to-face with the return to the new normal.
Together with the Australasian College of Paramedicine and the Australasian Council of Paramedicine Deans, the CAA has been looking at options to introduce accreditation for postgraduate qualifications.
The Clinical Forum meet regularly for updates and information exchange on COVID-19. The Forum looked at increased workload and staff availability issues due to COVID19 isolation requirements.
Common topics discussed were the PPE requirements, vaccinations and vehicle cleaning. Due to large increase in demand we have seen the setup of Virtual Emergency Departments, with experiences shared at Forum meetings.
The Forum discussed the roll out of mechanical CPR machines and the use of tourniquets in ambulance settings.
The members of the Emergency Management Forum were extremely busy with a strong focus on the COVID-19 pandemic This included planning for pandemic outbreaks of new variants, to easing of restrictions, and vaccine roll out.
Members shared plans for the summer season, getting ready for extreme events that unfortunately are becoming more common Floods, bushfires and heat waves all formed plans for services to be ready when disasters strike. And as always services provided support by sending teams to support local services in time of need.
The Fleet and Equipment Working Group discussed COVID-19 related impacts on the provision of fleet and equipment.
Other topics have included impact on vehicle design on infection control, base standards for ambulance vehicles, bariatric vehicles, standards for multipurpose vehicles, power stretchers, stroke ambulance design, recalls and failures, as well as alternative energy sources and sustainable vehicles.
Two main focuses were Bariatric stretchers and vehicles and Four-wheel Drive vehicles
The Bariatric sub-group shared bariatric patient vehicle and equipment plans in hopes to improve bariatric patient prehospital care.
Similarly, the Four-wheel Drive sub-group discussed options for their current four-wheel drive vehicles and shared future plans. The subgroup was created to look at designing an improved four-wheel vehicle, which would have better access and transport solutions for patients located in four-wheel drive conditions.
The Global Resuscitation Alliance Working Group discussed cardiac arrest registers, increasing the number of publicly available AEDs, and updating clinical dispatch guidelines relating to cardiac arrests as well as sharing plans for bystander initiatives.
The working group reviewed the out-of-hospital cardiac arrest strategy and a discussion was held around prioritising strategy steps and how to better highlight the Indigenous communities in the strategy.
This working group has started reviewing the cardiac arrest data sets and definitions as a part of the CAA Data Dictionary review, with aims to have this finalised in 2022-23.
The Infection Control and Prevention Management Working Group continued to meet regularly for updates and information exchange on COVID-19 related issues including staff vaccination, PPE recommendations, mask fit-testing and vehicle cleaning.
The Working Group started a discussion on the possibility of future data collection in this field. A mapping matrix was organised with aim to collate indicators used by services to investigate options for a CAA collection.
The CAA continued to observe 5/5 Hand Hygiene Day in effort to share information around hand hygiene and infection control In 2022 we created a series of “Patient Zone” posters showing hand hygiene steps staff are required to undertake to minimize the level of microbial burden on patient care equipment, vehicles and frequently touched areas.
Posters were created for five separate zones where patients are treated during an ambulance service delivery: prior to arrival at patient, on scene, in the ambulance, at hospital, and post-patient hand over.
The Mental Health and Wellbeing Working Group meet to share developments in staff wellbeing space, with most seeing a strain on their teams from the ongoing pandemic.
Much work has been done by most services and meetings were an opportunity to share their progress and new programs, including the progression of CAA wellbeing app Chnnl which is live in QAS and St John WA.
Demand increases for ambulance services, and the effect of a prolonged pandemic, have taken a toll on all staff including all levels of management, which have seen with increase in access to wellbeing services across all CAA members having been noted.
The group looked to review the CAA Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy and will plan next steps and future meetings.
The Occupational Violence Working Group meet to discuss occupational violence programs and incidents.
Services reported seeing an increase in call taker abuse and verbal violence, and the group discussed the issue including investigation reporting options to better understand the problem
The working group participated in a new internal data collection activity, designed to better understand the rate of occupational violence over time and the possibility of occupational violence occurring
The collection of data focuses on occupational violence in three categories: physical, non-physical, and accidental. The collection will be run as part of CAA's annual collections to continue building a suit of data for benchmarking and future trend predictions.
An information matrix was created for services to share details on occupational violence programs and will be an ongoing collection to ensure new development and programs are reported and shared with member services.
The Operations Committee was created to provide a forum for services to discuss issues around ambulance service delivery.
In the past financial year the committees' agenda continued to be dominated by ambulance response to COVID-19 and dedicated meetings where held regularly to share the latest COVID-19 developments, data, challenges, interventions, and recovery plans.
In addition to special COVID-19 meetings the committee met for their regular biannual meetings where main topics included concerning demand growth which has been seen across all CAA members, a rise in 000/111 call rates, and increasing pressures of ambulance ramping at emergency departments.
Workforce changes and challenges, including staff absenteeism and availability, staff shortages, recruitment, and retention were discussed at meetings
The Quality Standards Working Group was established following the introduction of National Health Quality Standards in Australia, and the subsequent requirement for ambulance services to eventually be accredited against the standards
As of now SA Ambulance Service is the only Australian ambulance service that has completed accreditation and has been re-accredited again in 2022. Their experience and processes are invaluable for CAA members to share as they undertake their own accreditation.
The Strategic Business Committee has been actively exchanging updates on COVID-19 developments and rising demand, to not only share information but also better understand trends and upcoming changes to help manage demand in their own services
During 2021-22 services reported an increase in ramping, which attracted heavy media coverage and interest from the public and governments. The committee worked in sharing data, new initiatives and demand management programs designed to tackle demand as well as ambulance ramping.
The Strategic Business Committee has begun a review of the current Report on Government Services ambulance framework, the CAA Data Dictionary and other internal CAA collections, with the aim of having it finalised in the 2022-23 financial year.
The Strategic Business Committee continued to oversee CAA data reporting, including Workforce and Gender collection, Patient Experience Survey, Report on Government Services and others.
The Stroke Capable Ambulance Working Group was formed in 2021-22 to provide advice to the Australian Stroke Alliance.
The Australian Stroke Alliance is dedicated to improving the care of the growing number of people suffering stroke.
This working group discussed current ambulance sector stroke pathways and initiatives, technology and telestroke, and paramedic stroke education options.
The Women in Leadership Working Group continued working to their work plan, and this financial year saw the launch of the inaugural CAA Women in Leadership Scholarship.
The group are keen to progress work on a career progression checklist, and will look to include points like mentoring, sponsorship and pathway recommendations.
CAA's Women in Leadership Scholarship was open for submission in March 2022 The purpose of the scholarship is to encourage women to step into leadership roles and to support the development of current women leaders in the Ambulance Services Sector.
A total of 121 scholarship applications were received, with the prize kindly donated by Total Coaching Academy Australia for a 1-year coaching program with their CEO Julie Piantadosi
The group oversees the CAA Workforce and Gender Data Collection which is run annually to gather insight from the sector on progression of women in ambulance.
The second CAA Women in Ambulance Survey designed to capture data and feedback from women working in the sector is set to run later in 2022.
CAA Awards keep growing and gaining recognition not just across Australasia but indeed globally.
CAA Awards for Excellence award winners and nominees are celebrated globally and are shared with excitement with our partners
CAA proudly runs the Women in Ambulance campaign, which celebrates the wonderful and hard-working women working across our member services, including the Women in Leadership Scholarship.
The CAA Awards for Excellence returned in 2021 after having to take a break in 2020 due to the demands of COVID-19.
The 2021 Awards saw a total of 31 entries from nearly all of our member services As always the quality of programs submitted was outstanding and feedback from our judges was overwhelmingly positive.
While we did not get to celebrate the winners in person at our annual Awards for Excellence Gala Dinner, we made the finalists and winner announcements through live videos across CAA digital platforms giving services the chance to celebrate their successes.
Queensland Ambulance Service took out the coveted STAR Award win after securing the win in Excellence in the Clinical Practice category with their Stroke Pre-hospital Informed Decision-Making using EEG Recordings project.
Category winners include:
Excellence in Technology - St John New Zealand for Using Machine Learning to Inform Helicopter Dispatch
Excellence in Staff Development - St John New Zealand for 'On Demand' Online Learning Platform
Excellence in Patient Care - Ambulance Victoria for TelePROMPT
Excellence in Leadership - Ambulance Victoria for Social and Environmental responsibility (Framework and Action Plan)
Excellence in Mental Health & Wellbeing - SA Ambulance Service for SAAS Mental Health Co-Response (MH-CORE)
The CAA Women in Ambulance campaign has been running for three years and was created to recognise women working in the ambulance sector. The campaign shines the light on role models and provides inspiration to others in the sector, showcasing what wonderful careers are available working for an Australasian ambulance service.
On 2022 International Women’s Day the CAA Chair and Ambulance Victoria CEO Tony Walker ASM announced the 2022 Women in Ambulance Honour Recipients in a video shared across CAA digital platforms.
In 2022 56 women from across Australian, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea ambulance services were celebrated as the 2022 CAA Women in Ambulance Honour Recipients.
The Honour Recipients received CAA Women in Ambulance certificates, lapel pins, and invitations to the Women in Leadership Forum to be held during CAA Congress 2022
A number of our member services held ceremonies celebrating their Honour Recipients, and word about the awards was shared accross CAA digital platforms, FIRST magazine and many local media and services publications
CAA works to bring awareness to a multitude of topics, where they become a prominent topic for our members and the sector, and we gather together to shine the light to improve outcomes and effect change.
In 2021-22 CAA ran campaigns ranging from Restart a Heart, designed to raise public
Take Five for Hand Hygiene is an annual campaign created by CAA to highlight the importance of hand hygiene during paramedic’s time with patients.
Over the past five years the campaign has looked to help share awareness of the importance of good hand hygiene. CAA produced educational materials including posters, brochures, social media collateral and videos to assist in getting the message out.
This year’s campaign featured a series of posters which highlighted the different zones in five different paramedicpatient situations: prior to departure, on scene/patients home, in the ambulance, at the hospital and following patient handover.
The campaign was launched on International Hand Hygiene Day, May 5, 2022 with a roll out of collateral, supported by digital media posts and activations.
CAA strives to pro-actively provide and strengthen a positive culture towards sustainability in the ambulance sector and significantly reduce the likelihood of environmental impacts in the provision of services. As such, June importantly brings a month-long focus on sustainability with the Sustainable Ambulance campaign.
CAA shared posts acknowledging the importance of World Environment Day and World Ocean Day to further join the sustainability movement and to recognize that people, communities, and organizations everywhere have the power to take action
Throughout June, we shared sustainability facts on CAA social media channels intended to get our audience thinking about the impacts of events and actions, and how we can shift from harming the planet to healing it
CAA held a special sustainability webinar to help our audience further conceptualize the link between the Climate, Health, & You. Catherine O'Shea from Ambulance Victoria took our listeners through the links between climate and health and encouraged participants to build resilience to the effects of climate change
In 2021 we endeavored to reach and educate more people than ever before. Our focus remained on continuing to ask as many people as possible to take some time out to refresh their CPR and AED skills and to learn about the horrific statistics relating to out-of-hospital cardiac arrest.
We delivered an entire week of COVID-safe online live events in the lead up to Restart a Heart Day on October 16. The events were live streamed on the CAA and RAHD website, as well as on the CAA Facebook page and YouTube channel
CAA partnered with Build-a-Bear to launch a piece of premium quality merchandise that would soon become an icon in the campaign. Heartly, a custom Restart a Heart Day Builda-Bear, was introduced as a new piece of merchandise that participants would be able to make the subject of their #9for9 challenge videos
The #9for9 social media challenge involved people performing 9 compressions on the Restart a Heart Day Build-a-Bear, or other stuffed toy or pillow, in memory of the 9 out of 10 Australians and New Zealanders that have not survived an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. The #9for9 social media challenge videos received over 70,000 views, over 2,000 reactions, and over 100 comments.
We also worked with our sponsors to create our first ever CPR Education Kit. The physical kit included everything that an individual or group would need to facilitate their own CPR education session including a Mini Anne Laerdal CPR doll, a training AED, as well as a QR code linking to a CPR education video. We recognise and thank Laerdal for donating the Mini Anne dolls for this activation.
Outdoor media was received in the form of in-kind agreements from Dancorp offices, QMS and BIG Outdoor. The total value of media signage donated was valued at over $500,000 Digital signage appeared in all states besides Tasmania and the Northern Territory. In the future CAA aspire to appear in all states across Australia and in New Zealand.
Designed around World Mental Health Day, the ME First campaign aims to draw attention to the mental health and wellbeing of paramedics, as well as breaking down stigmas around asking for help.
This year CAA focused on providing tools and facts through social media channels.
Our FIRST by CAA magazine Wellness columnist Mitch Mullooly conducted a video for CAA explaining the need to draw attention to mental health within our ambulance services, and how we can show ourselves some compassion in this difficult environment.
CAA Board Chair Tony Walker shared with our social media followers a special message specifically directed at paramedics to ‘take care of ourselves’
Other content was posted throughout the month detailing general facts and tips surrounding mental health and wellbeing.
Over the last 12 months we have seen a rapid expansion in our marketing and communications activities. From the addition of new staff to the department, to the continued expansion of our publications, the past year has proved to be CAA’s biggest year in marketing to date. We continued our adoption of a robust, proactive marketing approach and sought to reach a broader audience to raise awareness around CAA We continued to encourage communication and involvement with our organisation to facilitate collaboration around the Australasian pre-hospital sector.
A new year of FIRST by CAA has seen tremendous success in bringing attention to the news and programs happening throughout the Australasian Ambulance Sector The magazine continues to be published quarterly and sent both as a physical copy and made available online
Our featured individuals for this year included: Dr Mickey Eisenberg, NSW Ambulance CEO Dominic Morgan, St John WA CEO Michelle Fyfe, and Dr. Jordan Nguyen.
A new permanent column by the Australasian College of Paramedicine has been added to appear within each issue starting in Autumn 2022. The current pillars will remain, with the content within them continuing to grow as FIRST by CAA becomes more popular within the sector.
The CAA Webinar Series showcased incredible speakers and topics, with an influx of new webinar attendees. The 1-hour long webinar sessions continue to please those that attended with an abundance of positive feedback received. CAA Webinars continue to offer 1 CPD point per webinar attended
A variety of topics were covered this year including our 2021 CAA Awards for Excellence Star Award winning project and a special Women in Leadership webinar led by Julie Piantadosi. The webinar recordings are made available on the CAA YouTube channel for those who missed the live sessions.
Our record-breaking webinar occurred in August when a total of 657 individuals registered to attend the ‘Update of AHA/ERC CPR Guidelines’ webinar. The CAA Webinar Series continues to be promoted within CAA’s E-Newsletter and through social media to reach potential attendees
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