Ambulance operations centre to be built

By Louisah Frank
An ambulance operations centre will be built at the St John Ambulance headquarters next to Port Moresby General Hospital to cater for the Apec meeting in November.
Commissioner for St John Matthew Cannon said the state-of-the-art facility comes with computer-aided dispatch and offices for doctors from the National Department of Health and ambulance paramedic teams during Apec. According to Cannon, the New Zealand Government had met the cost of K2.5 million to build the facility to begin work this week.
He said the facility would continue to operate after Apec.
“This building is re-purposed to an operation which is capable of holding eight call takers, four dispatches, two aeromedical coordinators, one clinical support desk, two supervisors with an incident management room from which we can coordinate things like the response to the earthquake in the Highlands Region,” Cannon said.
He said the facility is set to open on Oct 3 with operations beginning by the end of that month.
Cannon said they would soon open a new St John station co-located at 7-Mile Police Station to attend to emergencies faster in 7-Mile, 8-Mile and 9-Mile areas.
Minister for Health Sir Puka Temu thanked the New Zealand and Australian governments and Brian Bell Foundation for their continuous support.