Caboolture Hospital’s RADAR team now drive electric vehicles to patients in residential aged care facilities.
Caboolture Hospital now has two charging stations to cater for the increasing number of electric vehicles in the Metro North Health car fleet.
The charging stations in the after-hours staff carpark (Carpark B) were installed for two new RADAR rapid response team cars. The RADAR team travel to residential aged care facilities to treat patients in their own home, as a substitute for emergency department presentation.
RADAR rapid response improves our ability to respond to calls from Queensland Ambulance Service at or prior to attendance at an aged care facility and provide a clinically appropriate alternative care pathway as an alternative to emergency department presentations. The service includes nurse practitioners, advanced practice skilled nurse navigators, senior pharmacists and senior medical officers.
RADAR Service Support Officer Alicia Franklin said the electric vehicles are great to drive and the team love driving an environmentally friendly vehicle.
“It takes a minute to get used to not hearing an engine start,” Alicia said.
“It’s a nice change to not have to fill up with petrol, and it’s convenient to park and charge back at base. We know the car is charged and ready to go the next day.
“We get a lot of comments from people asking about them!”
The two RADAR vehicles are the fourth and fifth electric vehicles for Metro North Health.
Metro North now has charging stations for dedicated fleet vehicles at Herston (RADAR and Assets and Infrastructure cars) and Caboolture Hospital (RADAR). A third installation at Redcliffe Hospital will allow the hospital’s 12 casual pool car fleet to transition to electric.
Metro North achieved our target of seven electric vehicles in our fleet by December 2021 and is now working towards 16 electric vehicles in the fleet by December 2022.
Green Metro North’s Transport Implementation Plan will detail initiatives designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, including transitioning to a zero-emissions passenger vehicle fleet.
Under the Queensland Government’s QFleet Electric Vehicle Transition Strategy, Metro North has a responsibility to transition all passenger fleet vehicles to battery electric vehicles by 2028.
Zero or low-emissions vehicle options across other transport and fleet categories will also be investigated as appropriate models become available on the Australian market.