Maintaining communication

By LULU MARK
THE effective communication system of St John Ambulance (SJA) will be maintained, thanks to a K40,000 donation from the Malaysian Association of Papua New Guinea (MAPNG).
During a presentation yesterday, St John PNG chief executive officer Matthew Cannon shared how the ambulance service was able to assist two young women, one from Morobe and the other from along the Hiritano Highway in Central, successfully delivering their babies over the phone last week.
Cannon said due to the lack of a health facility nearby, the women’s assistants reached St John through the toll free number, 111, and four lives were saved.
“Huge component of that was the effective communication system and that’s something that we always put the Malaysian Association grant to and to build those up,” he said.
“At first it was building our first operation centres and then it’s been upgrading the technology and the software within our control centre.
“That means we can receive calls and will answer reliably which includes providing clinical support.”
He thanked the Malaysian Association of PNG for its continuous support over the last five years.