George Town Fire Station had members of emergency services in the region in the training, and learning from talented medical professionals from the mainland.

MediSim manager Colin Brown said that Tasmania’s emergency services are some of the best.

“The volunteers in Tasmania are amazing, and we have nothing but the utmost respect for these guys…they are really good quality, and really well trained,” Mr Brown said.

“These first responders either could, can, or will be the first ones to arrive at the scene of an incident first.

“If you’re in Hobart or another major city and you have an accident, you’re going to have an ambulance there in five or six minutes. If you have an accident and you’re in a regional or rural area, it’s going to take a lot longer than that,” he said.

Flight nurse Jessica Talimalie said it’s important for people in remote areas to access this training.

“There’s such limited resources available for first responders in remote areas in Tasmania, especially as they rely so heavily on volunteers,” Ms Talimalie said.

“So they’re bringing the training into the rural areas to increase accessibility to the training,” she said.

Intensive care paramedic Liz Ward said the training is important as it gives people more confidence in their work.

“First responders in rural areas such as George Town are confronted with high-fidelity, major trauma, and a lot of the time there’s no other help coming.

“They’re put in really challenging situations with nothing to go with, and I think that can be quite overwhelming. So in these areas where there’s limited to no professional help available, these first responders are the front line of the community’s trauma care,” Ms Ward said.

“A lot of Tassie runs on their volunteer capacity, and the only training they get for this is their first aid course,” she said, “So we try and give them some really simple, basic things that really address those life-threatening major issues.”

“These first responders are the ones who make a critical difference to the survival of the patient.

“What they are able to do, with relatively minimal equipment sometimes, makes a critical difference, not only to the survival of the patient, but also to their outcomes long-term,” she said.

CareFlight’s training sessions have also taken place in Swansea, Port Arthur, Huonville, and Burnie. They plan to return in 2018.

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