An airline has been accused of leaving doctors “out to dry” after they render assistance during in-flight emergencies, even at the expense of a missed connection or lost seat.
The issue was raised by paramedic and medical researcher Aidan Baron, who said it had come up in conversation with a number of ED, ICU and critical care consults this week.
He said they’d all responded to in-flight emergencies on Qantas flights, often spending hours on the immediate care of their fellow passenger as well as filling out paperwork and liaising with police or other emergency services.
But despite the frequent disruption to the doctors’ own travel plans, many had been left with barely a ‘thank you’ from the airline, let alone a refund or replacement ticket, Mr Baron, a medical student at Notre Dame University, Sydney, alleged.
He wrote on Twitter: “The solution they came up with as a group: Always render assistance in an emergency but refuse to fill out any paperwork when asked by airline staff.”
“Give them your work address and bill the airline at a private consulting rate for all time taken to complete forms/paperwork.”
I got a deck of playing cards from Hawaiian Airlines some time back after assessing a passenger and reassuring the crew that they didn’t need to land the plane urgently….yep…a whole deck of cards…
— SimonJudkins (@JudkinsSimon) November 29, 2022
I **hate** the paperwork part. Last time I helped out (not QANTAS, another overseas airline I can’t remember). I politely but firmly refused to complete it, and explained why. I gave in when crew said they’d get in trouble if I didn’t do it.
— Dr Vyom Sharma (@drvyom) November 29, 2022