The Queensland Government and Dangerous Healthcare Advertising
I heard a radio ad on the weekend that I still can’t quite believe really exists.
The setup is a woman calling a removalist van to her house to move some furniture from one side of the lounge to the other. The kicker? Loosely paraphrased, it was “if you want to call an ambulance, be sure you really need it. Don’t waste our time. Signed, the Queensland Government”.
It’s fairly well known that most heart attack fatalities come because the symptoms seem too trivial for the sufferer to consider making enough of a fuss to call for help. Ads like the one I’m too furious to actually describe in detail surely can’t help overcome that kind of natural reluctance. What on Earth was the Queensland Government thinking when they approved this ad?
Your Comments
Catriona writes:
Now I think about it, it’s also a poor metaphor: plenty of people out there wouldn’t be able to move a television across a room without professional assistance.
Sure, the professional is more likely to be a home help than a removalist, but my point remains (nitpicky but) valid: assuming a certain pattern of health and physical mobility among the general public and then metaphorically forcing everyone into that pattern is inefficient.
Especially for the health service.
Posted: 24 10 2008 - 09:45 | Permanent link to this comment
Matthew Smith writes:
Yeah I think I’ve heard this ad too and it did strike me as a bit wrong. I can understand a campaign against prank calls but you can’t expect ordinary people to have the medical expertise to know when something is an emergency or not. I once called triple 0 when my housemate was doubled up on her bed almost unable to breath because of the pain. They told me it was just a bad period and to drive her to hospital myself (great advice for a house-full of students with no car). So how was I to know she wasn’t about to drop dead: we were all really frightened and calling 000 made it worse because they told us to go away.
I think the ad will only make people confused about when to call the service since people will not know whether they will be admonished for wasting 000’s valuable time or whether they would be criticised later for not calling after their loved one has died. I think I know on which side people will er. An educational campaign about appropriate situations to call 000 would have been more effective and less offensive.
Posted: 24 10 2008 - 14:57 | Permanent link to this comment
Catriona writes:
Plus, driving someone to the hospital yourself can be, as you say, impossible at times. And if it is serious, and the person suffers serious complications or worse while en route, where are you then? The same with calling a cab—if someone dies in a cab, where is this cab company positioned, legally? I can see them refusing to take someone who can’t speak or move readily for pain in case they’re liable in some way for injury or death.
Posted: 24 10 2008 - 15:44 | Permanent link to this comment
Nick Caldwell writes:
Jeeze, Matt, that’s a horror story. What the hell were they thinking, giving you that advice?
Posted: 24 10 2008 - 20:20 | Permanent link to this comment