Arabic version: نقل لاعب بسيارة بعد كسر ساقه يثير دعوات لمراجعة سياسة الإسعاف

According to ABC News, Southern Breakers Football Club captain Harry Jones was driven about 70 kilometres by private car to Flinders Medical Centre after waiting at Victor Harbor’s South Coast District Hospital for an ambulance transfer following a serious leg injury.

Jones broke both bones in his lower left leg after his right boot caught in a goal net while he tried to stop an opposition strike in the final game of the season. Club trainer Peta Haldane provided first aid while an ambulance was called. She believed he should have been taken directly to Flinders Medical Centre because the Southern Fleurieu Health Service was not equipped for the orthopaedic surgery required.

After arriving at the Victor Harbor hospital, Jones was X-rayed and waited for transfer. His fiancée, Victoria Briggs, said staff advised they could face another four to five hours of waiting, with no guarantee of transfer that day. Briggs, assisted by Jones’s mother, took him by car as his leg continued to swell. He later underwent surgery the following day to insert a titanium rod into one of the broken bones.

Briggs and Haldane have called on the health minister to consider the case and review arrangements for Fleurieu patients needing orthopaedic surgery. They said they had no concerns about the care provided by paramedics and hospital staff, but questioned whether some patients could be taken directly to metropolitan hospitals.

An SA Ambulance spokesperson said the crew took Jones to Victor Harbor to provide the quickest medical care and access to appropriate pain relief. The spokesperson said SA Health’s destination policy considers transport to an appropriate and geographically closest hospital, alongside immediate health needs and demand on individual hospitals, with decisions made by healthcare professionals according to each patient’s needs.