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CNA
4 days ago
- Business
- CNA
Deep Dive - Calling 995? You may be rerouted to the NurseFirst helpline instead – here's how it works
Play Non-life-threatening 995 calls will be directed to NurseFirst, a triage helpline, under a six-month nationwide trial aimed at easing the burden on emergency services. How exactly does it work, and will the public adapt? Steven Chia and Otelli Edwards find out from Col Dr David Pflug, chief medical officer of the Singapore Civil Defence Force and Dr Jade Kua, clinical lead for the NurseFirst helpline and senior consultant at the emergency medicine department in Woodlands Health. Deep Dive - Calling 995? You may be rerouted to the NurseFirst helpline instead – here's how it works Non-life-threatening 995 calls will be directed to NurseFirst, a triage helpline, under a six-month nationwide trial aimed at easing the burden on emergency services. How exactly does it work, and will the public adapt? Steven Chia and Otelli Edwards find out from Col Dr David Pflug, chief medical officer of the Singapore Civil Defence Force and Dr Jade Kua, clinical lead for the NurseFirst helpline and senior consultant at the emergency medicine department in Woodlands Health. 18 mins Deep Dive - Have rising commercial rents reached a tipping point? Amid rising rents and growing competition, some Singapore businesses are closing down or relocating to cheaper premises. A local bakery in Siglap recently announced on social media it was moving out after its rent was increased by 57 per cent. Are commercial rent hikes spiralling out of control, or is this simply market forces at work? Steven Chia and Otelli Edwards speak to Ethan Hsu, head of retail at Knight Frank Singapore, and Terence Yow, managing director of Enviably Me Group of Companies and chairperson of the SG Tenants United for Fairness. 25 mins Deep Dive - Cabinet reshuffle: No big surprises but key moves to align the ministries under PM Wong's 4G team Prime Minister Lawrence Wong unveiled his Cabinet and one surprise was the lack of a second deputy prime minister. Instead, the new Cabinet includes three coordinating ministers. What does that signal? And will there be more changes to come? Steven Chia speaks to independent political observer Dr Felix Tan and Dr Elvin Ong of the National University of Singapore. 20 mins Deep Dive - GE2025: Are independent candidates a new force to be reckoned with? For the first time in 53 years, an independent candidate received more than 35 per cent of vote share, performing better than some smaller opposition parties. Jeremy Tan, who ran in Mountbatten SMC, and Darryl Lo who contested in Radin Mas SMC, join Steven Chia and Otelli Edwards to talk about lessons learnt from their campaigning and their future after GE2025. 21 mins
CNA
4 days ago
- General
- CNA
Deep Dive Podcast: Calling 995? You may be rerouted to the NurseFirst helpline instead – here's how it works
Non-life-threatening 995 calls will be directed to NurseFirst, a triage helpline, under a six-month nationwide trial aimed at easing the burden on emergency services. How exactly does it work and will the public adapt? Steven Chia and Otelli Edwards find out from Col Dr David Pflug, chief medical officer of the Singapore Civil Defence Force and Dr Jade Kua, clinical lead for the NurseFirst helpline and senior consultant at the emergency medicine department in Woodlands Health. Here is an excerpt from the conversation: Otelli Edwards, host: In your press release you mentioned burns, which are like, 15 per cent (are considered non-life-threatening). To the average person, (what) is this? Do you have video calls to see: "Oh okay, this is actually a 20 per cent burn." Col Dr David Pflug, chief medical officer of the Singapore Civil Defence Force: This is all very protocolised. The actual protocol is to describe to the person on the other end of the line what is the size, in terms of coin size and palm size. And they would just estimate something that they would understand and communicate. And from there, we do the back-end medical processing. Dr Jade Kua, clinical lead for NurseFirst: That's right. So we want to simply be able to understand what the situation is like through the questions that are on the protocol. And just to answer your question, your palm is 1 per cent. Steven Chia, host: Oh wow. So 15 per cent is maybe my whole arm. Dr Kua: So just to highlight, if you did feel like something bad is happening and you did feel like you were freaking out, no one's saying that you shouldn't be calling 995. So say you're calling on behalf of your grandpa, and your grandpa looks like he's having a heart attack, we're saying it's appropriate to call 995. But if you weren't sure, let's say you sprained your ankle and you weren't sure if this is a fracture? Is this a sprain? Should I just put some rubbing ointment on it? Then if you called the NurseFirst helpline, our nurses would guide you on where to go. If you had called 995, then the 995 call centre would say: "Okay, this sounds like this is not a life-threatening emergency. We're going to now transfer the call to NurseFirst, and NurseFirst can take it from there. Why?
CTV News
26-05-2025
- Health
- CTV News
University of Waterloo robot could be the future of helping first responders
A triage robot designed by researchers from the University of Waterloo was on display on May 26, 2025. (Spencer Turcotte/CTV News) It could be the future of helping first responders. University of Waterloo researchers have developed a robot designed to triage patients in emergency situations. From flashing lights to debris strewn about, first responders can face overwhelming situations, and it can be a challenge to know where to start. But that's where University of Waterloo researchers. and their new robot. come in. 'Our soft medical triaging robot [is] aimed to aid first responders and crash aid,' said Lauren Mackay, who is hardware team lead for the UW MedTech Resolve team. The soft component has to do with the parts. It is more malleable than your typical robot, which means it's better for human-robot interaction. 'Think of a regular robot arm that has hard metal joints. It could crush someone's arm, but this one, because it has feedback, it's friendly for human-robot interaction and for an application such as a medical triage,' said Mackay. University of Waterloo triage robot Researchers posed with a triage robot at the University of Waterloo on May 26, 2025. (Spencer Turcotte/CTV News) In a medical triaging situation, time is of the essence and whether it's a natural disaster or a crash, first responders may have dozens of patients to assess all at once. But with the help of a triaging robot, a daunting task becomes more attainable. 'It could actually traverse though, like let's say for example, a disaster site itself,' said Daniel Penaranda, a hardware team member for the UW MedTech Resolve team. 'Then it would be able to attach a wristband onto the patients' wrists one by one.' The wristbands allow medical teams to use biometric signaling to measure things like someone's heart rate and oxygen saturation. 'We can see who has the highest need for care based on their vital signs,' said Mackay. The prototype differs from other robots because it uses pneumatics, which is the use of gas or pressurized air, to power its soft joints. 'We have these syringes which control the robot grippers and this uses hydraulics, which is also very precise for medical situations,' said Lucy Yandeng, a hardware team member for UW MedTech Resolve. Their invention recently turned heads at a big robotics competition in Boston called the Form and Function Challenge. 'For the first time ever, it happened where a team was able to win two awards. We won both second place and the Audience Choice awards. That's never happened before,' said Penaranda. So don't be surprised if one day you see first responders arrive with some robotic backup.
News.com.au
23-05-2025
- Health
- News.com.au
Major push to change how patients are triaged after Westfield Bondi Junction attack
Paramedics responding to the fatal Westfield Bondi Junction stabbing rampage were so committed to their patients they found it difficult to move on, with an inquest told an international tool to triage patients could have been significantly beneficial on the day of the attack. Dawn Singleton, Yixuan Cheng, Faraz Ahmed Tahir, Ashlee Good, Jade Young and Pikria Darchia were all killed by Joel Cauchi at Westfield Bondi Junction on April 13, 2024, before he was then shot dead by police. A coronial inquest into the attack was told some paramedics were hesitant to move on as they were so committed to treating their patients on the day of the fatal attack, with experts convening on Friday to discuss the benefits of implementing a UK innovation coined the ten second triage (TST) tool in NSW. The TST allows first responders to triage patients within 10 seconds. First responders walk through a series of rapid steps to triage a patient, with prompts including is the person walking, talking or breathing. Patients are then quickly assessed as priority one or priority two, and lifesaving interventions are carried out. Emergency medicine expert Phil Cowburn told the court that seconds was simply a guideline: for instance, patients who are walking can be triaged in less than 10 seconds, while it may take longer to check if a patient has penetrating injuries and such. 'You shouldn't stop at 10 seconds, you should carry on until the lifesaving interventions are done, but on average when looking at a large number of patients … it takes on average 10 seconds per patient to triage,' Dr Cowburn told the court. The tool includes triaging patients as a 'category silver' rather than 'deceased'. Dr Cowburn explained that a patient may have been declared dead under previous triage tools; however, it was a 'very quick decision to make under a lot of stress'. 'It felt inappropriate to us that we were putting our responders under that level of pressure to make that decision quickly,' Dr Cowburn told the inquest. A category silver allows the chance for resuscitation to be given if felt appropriate and for any responder – not just healthcare professionals – to make that decision. Dr Cowburn also said bystanders would not be stopped from applying aid to someone triaged as a category silver. 'No patient would inadvertently be declared deceased if that was perhaps not appropriate,' Dr Cowburn said. The first responding paramedic and forward commander on the day of the attack, Brett Simpson, earlier agreed that TST could have been useful in responding to the Bondi attack, particularly the use of category silver. Counsel assisting the coroner Peggy Dwyer SC earlier said one reason for the category silver was to combat the adverse impact on first responders in having to make the declaration of deceased. While Inspector Simpson said this wasn't a 'problem' on the day of the fatal attack, it was 'definitely a factor'. 'Our crews are very well trained, but in a situation like that when their bandwidth is completely and wholly exceeded by the environment that they're in, some of them potentially may not have felt comfortable in making that declaration,' he said. 'That's a role that I ended up performing as I approached some of the crews that were treating some of the victims that did not survive … being able to take that burden off of those crews meant that they were able to regain some of their bandwidth, effectively conserve some of their supplies, and move on and treat other patients.' It is not suggested paramedics did not adequately perform their duties, nor that any lives could have been saved. The inquest is a learning exercise for any future mass tragedy. Police officers on scene at the Bondi attack may have been able to help paramedics identify patients who were a priority and of silver category quicker, improving situational awareness on the day of the Bondi attack, the court was told on Friday. Emergency physician Stefan Mazur said 'the current triage system, whilst works OK – even in exercise it kind of works OK – but under pressure it does tend to not work as well as you like'. The inclusion of lifesaving interventions, and giving other responders such as police the language to communicate what resources are needed for the patients in front of them, were some benefits highlighted by NSW Ambulance acting executive director of medical services and research Thomas Evens. 'Collectively … the TST package I think would have a significant impact on the capability of the NSW government's response to patients in an incident such as (Bondi),' Dr Evens said. However, he noted it would be 'quite a fundamental change in the way emergency services undertake their activity' and would need to be implemented across all emergency services with joint emergency services interoperability principles. Inspector Simpson earlier told the court that it was an impressive tool and 'takes the clinical aspect out of it'. 'You could effectively train anyone in this room on how to then triage a patient and then provide that information to a clinician as they approach,' he said. Police are generally on scene first and were at the shopping centre in large numbers on April 13, 2024. Inspector Simpson said giving police the tools to notify paramedics what category of patients were inside the centre may have been able to help with resource allocation.
