There is a growing powerhouse in the event medical services industry, and they are based in the Yass Valley.
Get First Aid is the business of Binalong locals Ryan and Alison Deale, who provide event medical services and first aid training across NSW and the ACT.
The couple recently secured a major government contract with the ACT, which means they will provide medical services for all ACT events for the next five years.
As for why their rise in the industry has been so abrupt, Ryan says it’s treating every event with the same amount of care and importance.
“I think it’s the way we do things.”
“To put it lightly, we treat all events like they’re a major part of the community,” he said.
Get First Aid was created two and a half years ago when Ryan saw an improvement area for all event medical service businesses.
“I’ve been in the industry for about 10 years, and in that time, I’ve worked for several companies, and the biggest gap in the industry I saw from working with other companies was that the owners aren’t on the ground and don’t know what it’s like to work in that events space.”
“What the events industry actually want are people who they can speak to on the phone and then see out in uniform treating patients,” he said.
Their success, heightened by their recent government contract, has them exceeding their own expectations.
“We’ve already met our five-year goal now!”
“Now what we are trying to do is establish an actual base for Get First Aid, and we are looking in the Yass Valley region,” he said.
Whilst Get First Aid now boasts a staff group of over 28 medical professionals and students; it certainly started from humble beginnings.
“When we first started, it was myself, my wife and another medic that were doing these events.”
‘Within 6 months, we hired 10 staff, and now we are 2 and a half years in with over 28 medical staff,” he said.
Of their staff, approximately 80% are students in medicine, nursing, or paramedicine. This is where they would like to continue to hire from as they view providing real-world experience to students in the medical industry as another way they can help the community.
Ryan’s wife Alison, who is responsible for managing the operation of Get First Aid, said the recent contract and stories of successful first-aid usage by people they had provided first-aid training to as the two major highlights.
“Gaining this government contract is obviously a massive thing for us, and for me, it’s a personal win because I did all the tender writing.”
“We actually hear back about people we have trained who have used first-aid that we taught them to help their friends, and that’s really rewarding for us,” she said.
When asked what their plans for the future were, Ryan wanted to assure the community that they would be staying right here in the Yass Valley and left an ominous warning to the rest of the event medical services industry.
“We want to keep Get First Aid in the Yass Valley because that’s where we started and continue that relationship with the community.”
“We do want to shake up the industry; we want other players to know that they do need to up their game with how they’re delivering services,’ he said.
Get First Aid looked after the Yass Show on Saturday and hope to begin hiring more staff in August.
Max O’Driscoll
