For many weeks now, we have been watching the tragedies unfold as the bushfires have devastated large parts of Eastern Australia, mainly New South Wales and Victoria. While the news stories have predominantly focused on the efforts of the firefighters, we are very much aware that ambulance personnel will also have played a hugely important part in the response.

We are particularly aware of the situation for the many firefighters who are volunteers. Not only are they facing extreme dangers daily, but we understand that for some, it will very often have been at the risk to their own properties as they have probably been deployed elsewhere. We also understand they will have been fighting fires since September, have had few, if any, days off. We are sure some of these issues will also affect the clinicians who are working in these terrible conditions.

We have set up this donations page to raise funds which we hope will help. All donations will go direct to the Australia Red Cross who have deployed trained staff and volunteers to disaster-affected communities.

The thoughts of the members of the College of Paramedics are with their colleagues in Australia at this very difficult time. We hope the situation improves rapidly and that there are no further tragedies at this most testing of times.

Regards,

Tracy Nicholls
Chief Executive