In the name of saving lives

The National Weekender

By GLENDA AWIKIAK
In a medical emergency time is critical. Lives can be lost in minutes.
Everyone desires to be attended to in seconds and be treated as quickly as possible to prevent death and improve their chances of survival in any life and death situation. No one likes to be in pain or remain in the hospital for too long and be handled badly when severely injured.
For those in and around Port Moresby and some parts of Central province St John Ambulance is there to ensure all that.
St John is the leading agency responsible for ambulance and pre-hospital care. St John Ambulance supports the Department of Health in the coordination of 24-hour ambulance services.
St John Ambulance has reached some two million people in the areas it operates in NCD and Central. It prides itself in delivering world-class pre-hospital health care wherever it operates, to make Papua New Guinea a safer and healthier nation.
St John Ambulance moves patients from small hospitals to big hospitals as well support police and the fire service.
According to St John Ambulance Commissioner Mathew Cannon the organisation is investing in communities to provide basic healthcare skills like first aid, to treat common problems and prevent diseases. Its aim is to deliver best-practice health care services and coordinate ambulance services nationally on behalf of the Government.
It strives to: reduce morbidity and mortality from treatable illnesses, injury or birthing complications outside of a hospital; maintain the trust of the business community to provide emergency ambulance services and first aid training; strengthen organisational culture and governance to help achieve long-term financial viability; nurture the skills and knowledge of team members so all can be healthy, caring, passionate and innovative; and promote community and business resilience through first aid education and kits.
All emergency calls are received on the 111 Emergency number and the ambulances are coordinated from a 24-hour operations centre in Port Moresby by trained call-takers supervised by a duty operations manager.
“Our main focus is to ensure pre-hospital care is given to an ill or injured person in the community or primary care setting before reaching a hospital, “Cannon said.
“Pre-hospital care is initiated from the moment the trained first person arrives at the patient and continues until the patient is better or taken to hospital.
“Life-saving first aid can be started by lay people trained in first aid at the scene. Advanced medical care is given by highly trained ambulance paramedics, doctors and nurses at the scene of the incident or on the way to hospital.
“The 111 ambulance call-taker can give lifesaving first aid instruction to an untrained person over the phone,” he explained.
Cannon said what they were doing also helped to reduce the number of emergency cases at the hospitals’ emergency departments.
“This is done by our highly trained paramedics and emergency medical technicians (EMTs). The paramedics and EMTs fix common medical conditions without taking patients to hospital. This ambulance service is very helpful especially when it comes to maternal health.
“Mothers having complication and can’t reach the hospitals because of transport issues can have access through the help of St John Ambulance.
“This is a free rural ambulance service that will help reduce the level of pregnancy-related death in the country,” Cannon said.
Apart from pre-health care services St John Ambulance is an international leader in first aid education. They provide National Training Council-endorsed training in their flagship courses, village first aid and occupational first aid.
St John Ambulance clients range from businesses, government bodies, schools and universities, aid agencies, police and firefighters and private residents.

Funding of services
St John Ambulance is only partially funded by the Government. The national and provincial governments fund just under 70 per cent of the direct operating costs for ambulance services.
“The shortfall must be met through part-charges for non-critical transport, corporate and community support and revenue from commercial activities.
“Despite being a statutory body, we rely on financial and voluntary support to help fund the services we provide to your community. “Ambulance part charges are a necessary and important contribution to help us continue all that we do,” Cannon said.
St John Ambulance also receives financial assistance through regional support from:

  • NSW Ambulance Paramedic Educators who train and mentor PNG ambulance officers and paramedics in partnership with PNG doctors.
  • The Australian government which funds highly experienced paramedic leaders to advise and support St John’s service improvement projects.
  • St John Ambulance Australia Pacific Cooperation which supports governance and regional growth of vital ambulance services and first aid education.

Cannon said to better tailor and coordinate services, they will have a health and ambulance national operations centre, a new computerised dispatch software and redesigned emergency and medical dispatch procedures.
Other changes for enhanced response performance will include co-locating ambulances at fire stations, 24-hour intensive care paramedic services in NCD/Central and continuous monitoring and reporting. St John also plans to strengthen public engagement through regular media engagements, public awareness messaging about first aid and how to use the 111 campaign.

St John at major events
A key consideration of hosting an event is health and safety for participants and attendees. St John Ambulance is the global leader in providing health solutions at events of all sizes.
St John has so far been involved in Apec meetings, the 2016 Women’s Under 20 World Cup, 2017 Rugby League World Cup, 2015 Pacific Games, among other events in PNG.

2017 in review
Statistics showed that a total 3,731 emergency incidents were attended to by St John Ambulance. There were 646 high priority emergencies, 57 airport medevacs and 1,027 hospital referrals.
Since it was given responsibility and authority to run the ambulance by the Minister for Health, St John Ambulance has reached an estimated 20,000 people per year in PNG. St John Ambulance is 61 years old in PNG.

The future
St John will strive to deliver outstanding pre-hospital care where and when it is needed.
This can be achieved through ambulance services that are accessible to every major village in PNG; a coordinated nation-wide service, an air ambulance retrieval unit focused on retrieving critical obstetric and neonatal emergency cases and a special operations unit able to rescue severely injured people in partnership with the police.