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Speaker 1: Clock.

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Speaker 2: Now. Unfortunately, another terrible weekend for our Saint John paramedics

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Speaker 2: in the sense that they had further incidents of occupational

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Speaker 2: violence towards them. Now joining me on the line is

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Speaker 2: Craig Garaway, Saint John NT, Director of Ambulance Services.

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Speaker 1: Good morning, Craig, Good morning Katie.

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Speaker 2: Craig. Unfortunately, multiple incidents of occupational violence, including physical and

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Speaker 2: verbal abuse of paramedics and dispatches. What's going on?

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Speaker 1: Yeah, it doesn't seem like things are changing too much.

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Speaker 1: We've got numerous reports. Obviously our call takers, Triple zero

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Speaker 1: call takers are being abused on the phone and threatened

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Speaker 1: with physical harm. And obviously our paramedics out there working

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Speaker 1: with the other frontline workers are obviously copying it as well,

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Speaker 1: obviously being spat on, punched, and yeah, look at it

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Speaker 1: just seems like it's not getting any better, is probably

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Speaker 1: the best way for me to put it.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, So what had happened on the weekend, Like, what

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Speaker 2: were the specific incidents on the weekends?

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Speaker 1: Oh, look, there was numerous ones, but probably the biggest one,

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Speaker 1: the most concerning one for me, This happened on Todd

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Speaker 1: Street Mall obviously in our Springs around lunchtime. I had

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Speaker 1: a senior paramedic there going to get some lunch and

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Speaker 1: unfortunately a large group of thirty people in probably a

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Speaker 1: bit more than thirty people started fighting near their vehicle.

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Speaker 1: They've had to shelter in an alleyway and hide to

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Speaker 1: get away from that. Luckily, has been able to set

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Speaker 1: her duress alarm off to alert police of what was

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Speaker 1: going on. In our param X carry digital radio systems

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Speaker 1: that have a juriss alarm on them, and a male

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Speaker 1: was running towards her with a large machete, but thankfully

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Speaker 1: ran further down the mall and tack day person down

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Speaker 1: the mall a large machete on the back. Yeah, and

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Speaker 1: that person was in a serious probably critical condition, lost

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Speaker 1: over lead a blood in that instant. So she's had

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Speaker 1: to hide until she was able to the police were

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Speaker 1: able to get there, and then she was able to

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Speaker 1: get herself to that patience and get them the hospital

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Speaker 1: in a critical condition. But it then sort of followed

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Speaker 1: on from I'd understand that the hospital there was a

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Speaker 1: large to servants there with another twenty people fighting with weapons,

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Speaker 1: so they were having to shelter in the emergency department.

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Speaker 1: So really a disappointing day for the guys.

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Speaker 2: Horrifying.

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Speaker 1: It is horrifying for her, but it's becoming unfortunately what

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Speaker 1: our people are putting up with every day, and along

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Speaker 1: with other frontline workers, it's really disappointing.

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Speaker 2: I cannot even begin to imagine what must have been

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Speaker 2: going through her mind when she's trying to shelter and

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Speaker 2: then there is someone running towards her with a machete.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, terrifying. I spoke to her yesterday and she's in

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Speaker 1: good spirits, fantastic operator, but that's still not right and

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Speaker 1: she I'm going down all of Springs tomorrow to try

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Speaker 1: and catch up with her and speak to some people

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Speaker 1: that sort of helped her out at the scene. I

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Speaker 1: believe there may have been a couple of nurses from

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Speaker 1: one of the organizations down there and staff at at

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Speaker 1: the shop she was trying to get a lunch at.

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Speaker 1: So anyway, this is happening in the middle of the day.

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Speaker 1: But like I said, we've had multiple things right across

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Speaker 1: the territory. We've had some damage at our ambulance station

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Speaker 1: nowt the Palmerston where someone's broken into all our ambulances parked. Thankfully,

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Speaker 1: not any damage there to our vehicles. But you know,

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Speaker 1: as I said, my ECC staff have been threatened to

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Speaker 1: be hunted down and assaulted over the phone. I don't know. Well, yeah,

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Speaker 1: this is mind blower. I could go on and on, Katie,

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Speaker 1: but yeah, it's disappointing.

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Speaker 2: Horrible, Like honestly, we're talking about people who are trying

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Speaker 2: to help us, you know, like fundamentally, you guys are

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Speaker 2: out there trying to help people in their hour of need,

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Speaker 2: and for this kind of garbage behavior to be happening,

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Speaker 2: or to those that are answering emergency calls and people

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Speaker 2: carrying on like this saying they're going to hunt down,

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Speaker 2: you know, the paramedics or the call takers. I am

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Speaker 2: disgusted to be blunt about it.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, it's mind blowing and I take my hat off

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Speaker 1: to all frontline workers, in particular by paramedics who continually

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Speaker 1: come back to work every day to put up with

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Speaker 1: this crap, Katie. And you know, we wonder why, you know,

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Speaker 1: our paramedics. You know, we lose a lot about parents

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Speaker 1: paramedics moving into state. You know, there's a lot of

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Speaker 1: reasons for that, but you probably wouldn't come if you

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Speaker 1: had to come to work every day at your radio

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Speaker 1: station there and put that with this behavior, you'd probably

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Speaker 1: don't get another job.

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Speaker 2: Well, you'd have to think that this is potentially a

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Speaker 2: contributing factor to people then moving into state. You know,

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Speaker 2: while they may be able to come here and get

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Speaker 2: some extraordinary experience, it would be you know, having your

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Speaker 2: life threatened while you're at work, particularly if you were

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Speaker 2: any eight really, but maybe if you're living away from

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Speaker 2: your family and your parents and you weren't very old,

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Speaker 2: it'd be really scary stuff.

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Speaker 1: It is very scary stuff. And unfortunately, I go back

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Speaker 1: a few years and this used to be rare. This

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Speaker 1: is becoming every day now, and I'd just like to

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Speaker 1: thank the Mt. Police are working very hard at trying

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Speaker 1: to look after our guys. And you know, obviously they're

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Speaker 1: busy as well, so and they're copying it as well.

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Speaker 1: I'm sure they probably cop it worse than we do.

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Speaker 1: And they don't come to work every day to have

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Speaker 1: to deal with.

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Speaker 2: That eat none of you do. Well. Look, I say

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Speaker 2: it often, but I take my hat off to our

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Speaker 2: frontline workers. You guys do an incredible job. And you know,

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Speaker 2: to think of that lady and Alice Springs going through

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Speaker 2: that situation on Friday, thinking that someone's running at her

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Speaker 2: with a machete, then waiting till it was safe and

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Speaker 2: still going and treating somebody. To me, that's heroic stuff.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, she is a hero all. I think all my

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Speaker 1: paramedics are heroes, to be honest with you. Every day,

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Speaker 1: our patient transport, our call takers, our volunteers, they are

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Speaker 1: all heroes. They come in every day and they keep

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Speaker 1: doing the best they can with what they've got. So

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Speaker 1: thank you to.

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Speaker 2: Them, absolutely, Craig, let's talk through the weekend. On Saturday,

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Speaker 2: goodness mate. You know what, though, we needed to speak

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Speaker 2: about that because I believe that Territorians need to know

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Speaker 2: what our paramedics and what our call takers, what everybody

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Speaker 2: is dealing with out there. So I'm glad that we've

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Speaker 2: spoken about it now. On Saturday, Lee Point Road, an

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Speaker 2: adult male single vehicle crash into a median strip. What

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Speaker 2: happened to you?

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Speaker 1: Yeah, look, lost control there on the median strip obviously

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Speaker 1: two thirty in the morning. I'm sure what they were

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Speaker 1: on the road doing at that time, but they've been

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Speaker 1: taken into the Royal dun Hospital only with minor injuries, thankfully,

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Speaker 1: not far from the hospital there. But seem they're getting

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Speaker 1: a lot of crashes, you know, late at night, between

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Speaker 1: the hours of midnight and about six o'clock, so obviously

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Speaker 1: people just need to be a little bit more careful there. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Look another one at four point thirty in Allor on

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Speaker 1: Saturday as well, another single crashing the powerpole. There were

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Speaker 1: three people in that one and they were all taken

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Speaker 1: into hospital for treatment. Obviously that puts a lot of

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Speaker 1: pressure on all the emergency services responding to those crashes,

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Speaker 1: and then obviously the hospital staff having to look after

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Speaker 1: those people and they're already busy enough. So and I

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Speaker 1: think we followed on at nine o'clock in the city

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Speaker 1: with a scooter and a car colliding. That seems to

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Speaker 1: becoming more and more common now, these scooters and cars

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Speaker 1: colliding and a mail there with the head injuries taken

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Speaker 1: into hospital. I don't believe. I don't believe they're wearing

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Speaker 1: a helmet, but just shows the importance if you are

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Speaker 1: riding any form of motorbile push by scooter, you know

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Speaker 1: we're a helmet.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, you have to, especially those bloody push bikes that

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Speaker 2: they've got at the moment. A lot of the kids

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Speaker 2: have gotten they go that fast.

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Speaker 1: They're scary, Katie. They're as fast as im oor bike.

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Speaker 1: And I was actually in Glen Elg on the weekend

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Speaker 1: last weekend and there would have been twenty of them

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Speaker 1: riding the street and it was amazing how fast they

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Speaker 1: were and how dangerous it was.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, hey, Craig, before I let you go, it

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Speaker 2: looks like there was also a football injury by the

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Speaker 2: look of it as well.

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Speaker 1: Was that personal right, yeah, twenty five year old female.

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Speaker 1: Therefore the injury looks like a broken or fractured ankle. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: so a bit of a delay there obviously getting to

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Speaker 1: that patient because of our workload them, but obviously got

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Speaker 1: them into the rule on hospital where I'm sure they

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Speaker 1: make a full recovery. Probably going to miss the rest

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Speaker 1: of the season, I would suggest.

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Speaker 2: Get the point it sounds terrible. Yeah, well we're at

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Speaker 2: the pointy end the finals. Craig. Did you get called out?

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Speaker 2: Do you guys get called out quite a bit? Two

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Speaker 2: different injuries, different sports around the place.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, Look, we do mainly football, you know, whether it's

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Speaker 1: rugby or rossie rules, it would be probably the two

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Speaker 1: main ones that we get called to. And yeah, Obviously

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Speaker 1: that impacts on the game because obviously some people can't

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Speaker 1: be moved off the ground, and you know, it obviously

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Speaker 1: is concerning when people are laying out in the middle

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Speaker 1: of an oval.

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Speaker 2: Well, Craig Garaway, always appreciate your time. Thank you very

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Speaker 2: much for having a chat with us this morning. And look,

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Speaker 2: I do hope that those paramedics when you head to

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Speaker 2: Alice Springs tomorrow, I do hope that they're okay.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, me too, Katie. And hopefully next week when I

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Speaker 1: speak to you, I have really good news and no

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Speaker 1: one's been assaulted.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, let's hope. So thank you so much, Greig. Lovely

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Speaker 2: to talk to you this morning.

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Speaker 1: Thanks Katie, thank you