Hey Cassius, the only place I'm going is to make it known to anyone reading this thread that it is not considered acceptable practise for a paramedic to accompany a patient in a private vehicle for the reasons I have stated. You stated that your DH 'freaked out' and 'desperately wanted to drive...' - we see a lot of freaked out and desperate people and it is the job of the paramedic to manage not just the patient but anyone else on scene, particularly parents if we are dealing with a paediatric patient. Often, the best scene control is to clear all bystanders but this is not usually appropriate when dealing with a young child and his or her parents. The fact that you state that you didn't refuse transport by ambulance leaves me even more perplexed. If you and your DH were prepared for your child to be transported by ambulance - despite a preference to transport in your private vehicle - why on earth did the paramedic climb in your car? To be clear, I am not insulting you or your DH, I am concerned at the inappropriate actions of one of my colleagues. I do think it is important to clarify in this thread that a paramedic should not have travelled with a patient in a private vehicle so that anyone reading this will not expect the same actions from a paramedic should they ever have need to call an ambulance themselves.

I see that you are in Melbourne, but I don't know what area you live in. If you would like to PM the date of ambulance attendance and the address the ambulance was dispatched to, I would be very pleased to follow up the issue so that the crew that made this decision can be made aware of the reasons their actions were inappropriate. If you are not comfortable doing so, my only recourse is to make it clear in this public forum that these paramedics made a very poor decision.