The Australian emergency medical system

The Australian emergency medical system has transformed over the last thirty years with the development of pre-hospital care services, hospital Emergency Departments and the development of new professional roles of Emergency Physician and Paramedic. This transformation which has reflected those in many other countries has occurred because of increasing accountability by health services for the quality of emergency health care and increased professional commitment. The aim of this paper is to describe the transformation that has occurred in emergency health services system in Australia so as to inform those embarking on modemising their own emergency health services of the lessons learned and the challenges they may confront during the transformation. The Australian Emergency Medical System is not perfect and this description is not intended for repetition but rather to share the lessons learned