August 14, 2020
Acting Assistant Commissioner Tony Armstrong was the special guest at the annual general meeting of the Kingaroy Local Ambulance Committee this week.
He was briefed on activities over the past 12 months by the Kingaroy LAC and QAS staff.
LAC president John Box said it had been a “different” but remarkably busy year, which included the centenary of the ambulance service in Kingaroy.
Another highlight was the receipt of a $14,500 donation from the staff, AGL and corporate partners of the Coopers Gap Wind Farm which was auspiced via South Burnett CTC.
“The donation allowed us to purchase six CPR training mannikins, a baby CPR mannikin and three automated external defibrillator (AED) trainers,” Mr Box said.
“The major project and community event for the year was the phenomenally successful Centenary of Kingaroy Ambulance celebrations on February 29.
“Our event has been recognised as one of the most successful Centenary celebrations in recent times.
“The event was covered by all the local media outlets and featured in the Commissioner’s “Insight” Magazine.
“Officer-in-charge Mei-Lin Dean, station staff and our LAC team did an amazing job to make the event such a great success.”
John said that unfortunately, since then COVID-19 restrictions had limited LAC activities.
Other events during the past 12 months included:
- August – Long-serving member Liz Bruce resigned from the committee after 12 years; Cr Danita Potter was elected Treasurer to replace Sharon Leach after 10 years in the role.
- September – Peter McLennan with John and Chris Box attended the Biannual LAC State Conference in Toowoomba where Chris was awarded for her 10 years of service to Kingaroy LAC.
- October – Kingaroy officer-in-charge Travis Cramb announced his transfer to Toowoomba after four years in Kingaroy.
- November – a multi-casualty training exercise was staged by the Kingaroy QAS, using LAC members as “victims”. New officer-in-charge Mei-Lin Dean was appointed, the first permanent female OIC in Kingaroy.
- December – LAC Members completed CPR peer training and then proceeded to run CPR awareness displays at Kingaroy ShoppingWorld and SupaIGA shopping centres.
- February – Kay and Darryl Dove joined as new members. Kay began updating the LAC photo albums and collecting history articles for the Centenary celebration.
OIC Mei-Lin Dean reported that during 2019-20 the Kingaroy QAS had attended 4858 incidents, including 1767 potentially life-threatening Code 1 incidents and 2133 urgent Code 2 incidents.
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Thank you southburnett.com.au for your regular articles in support of the activities of our Kingaroy Local Ambulance Committee and the excellent team of paramedics based in Kingaroy