Post by Ambulance Victoria

When AV paramedic Ian Jones began his 50-year career, he didn’t even have his driver’s licence. At just 17-years-old, the ambulance cadet was thrown in the deep end. Unable to drive, he was forced into the back of the ambulance, monitoring patients en route to hospital while his supervisor drove the vehicle. “It was very confronting. At the age of 17, I was delivering babies and attending car crashes and all sorts of other ambulance cases.” Ian completed his cadetship in the Geelong and District Ambulance Service and landed a job as a qualified ambulance officer in Werribee. He later transferred to branches across Metropolitan Melbourne and even spent a few years in Mackay, Queensland. In the late 1990s, Ian returned to Victoria, taking up a position at the then on-call ambulance branch in Stawell, and has spent the rest of his career in the Grampians region. Ian has witnessed many changes across Victoria’s ambulance service through the decades, one of the most memorable being the introduction of trolley stretchers – revolutionising manual handling requirements for paramedics. As he prepares to formally farewell his career in July, it is the camaraderie he will miss most. “Once you put the uniform on, you become part of a fellowship of likeminded people that are all there to do the same thing – to look after your communities and make a difference.” Congratulations on an incredible career Ian! https://bit.ly/4vCLSzE