St John’s spirit lives among mortals

COVER STORY

By JESHER TILTO
ADORNED in their green uniforms and aptly known as the “Green Angels”, the men and women of St John Ambulance (SJA) risk life and limb to save as many people as they can each day.
Most people in Papua New Guinea (PNG) and the world know the importance and significance of such an organisation.
However, there are still those that are ignorant to ambulance service in their communities.
Regardless of all that is good and bad that has happened to SJA in the country over the years, one thing is for certain is that they are here to stay.
Many a time we see their vehicles with their sirens blaring, speeding on the roads to attend to emergencies.
Then, out steps their personnel to attend to the scene of the case.
Staring in awe, one just might wonder what else there is to know about this emergency service provider.

History
In 1976, SJA was established by Parliament as a sovereign Papua New Guinean organisation.
This was achieved through the passing of the St John Council Incorporation Act 1976.
The organisation’s name pays homage to St John the Baptist, an important figure in Christian history.
Its roots can be traced back to 1070 AD, when the original Knights Hospitaller, renowned for tending to the ailing and wounded, laid the foundation of the noble tradition of serving humanity, a legacy carried on by SJA to this day.
The present-day St John Ambulance, as we recognise it today, underwent reformation during the 1800s in Great Britain. Queen Victoria was so impressed with the remarkable work of St John Ambulance she bestowed upon it a Royal Charter in 1888.
This distinction is symbolised by the inclusion of the Royal Beasts, the lion, and the unicorn, prominently displayed in the St John Ambulance logo.
Additionally, in tribute to the esteemed status of the organisation and as a symbol of their rank, officers of SJA proudly don Queen Victoria’s Crown on their hats and epaulettes. This regal adornment serves as a reminder of the organisation’s royal standing.
SJA PNG, as a Crown organisation, has associations with other SJA organisations around the world in that they share the name, logo, values, and mission.
All SJA organisations are sovereign to the nation in which they exist.
The King is the head of St John in the Commonwealth. The Governor-General presides over St John Ambulance in PNG.
SJA was established in PNG in 1957 by New South Wales under the colonial era.
In 1976, Parliament transferred SJA from Australia to a PNG entity by an Act of Parliament.
In 1983, SJA was appointed by the Health Department as the jurisdictional ambulance service for the Southern region and has continued on to operate in other provinces.

SJA in PNG
SJA is a statutory civil defence charity that provides professional emergency medical services, training, and humanitarian assistance to the people of PNG for over 65 years.
It has a strong presence in many provinces across the nation, dedicated to enhancing health care through its ambulance, aeromedical, disaster response and training services. Their extensive team of health professionals and trained reservists play a crucial role in delivering essential healthcare to tens of thousands of people each year and also provides a range of health and safety courses, including first aid, cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), and emergency medical response training.
SJA is engaged in various projects, including health clinics, educational programmes, and youth development initiatives.
The organisation is strengthened by the support of tremendous volunteers and donors who contribute to the organisation’s important work and enable them to efficiently support people and communities.
SJA achieves its mission to protect and save lives by:
Delivering the nation’s primary emergency ambulance and air medical retrieval service;
Providing the people with urgent and timely access to healthcare;
Delivering high-quality primary care and public health support services;
Providing disaster response and medical resilience in support of the Government; and
Working to make first aid a part of everyone’s life.
SJA commissioner Matt Cannon has welcomed the Government’s commitment to fund the emergency ambulance service through the 2024 National Budget.
“While this grant is a significant step forward, we remain dedicated to our fundraising efforts, striving to reach every corner of our nation,” he said.
Cannon said the ambulance service had already responded to more than 22,742 emergency incidents by October 2023 and expected to reach 25,000 by the end of last year.
“From more than 600 patients surveyed this year, 98 per cent of patients reported being satisfied or very satisfied with the care they received from the ambulance service.”
SJA provides a valuable service in the health sector of the country and will continue to do so regardless of any negative backlash in the form of attacks by certain unruly elements in the communities they serve.

National operations centre
The National Ambulance Operations Centre (NAOC), operated by St John Ambulance (SJA), is the nerve centre for ambulance services in the country.
Cannon said: “The ambulance operations centre team work tirelessly around the clock to get ambulances and medical aid to people quickly.
“We won’t always get it right, but we are constantly improving our training and systems to be a better experience for our callers, patients and ambulance men and women.”
Centre manager Apollos Tago shared his experience on the services provided at the centre and how it had helped people around the country.
“We bring pre-hospital care to callers or individuals in need of emergency assistance.
“The care ambulance crews provide to patients has evolved from just taking them to hospital, to now providing high quality fundamental life support to improve survival odds for the most critical patients.
“It gives the public confidence when they can see our men and women in green uniforms arrive at the scene.
“Unfortunately, the coordinated ambulance service isn’t yet everywhere.
“We are working with provincial governments to bring ambulance services to more places, with the help of the national government,” Tago said.
The centre has 11 staff on duty at any one time, including operators, call-takers, dispatchers, and supervisors and within a 12-hour shift, they handled about 2,000 calls from all over PNG.
These professionals not only coordinate emergency calls, but also provided first aid instructions over the phone and dispatch ambulances to the appropriate locations in the National Capital District (NCD), Central, Lae, and Kokopo, with stations opening in Kerema, Kundiawa, Goroka and Mt Hagen.
On the other hand, the NAOC deals with more than 4,000 nuisance calls are made to SJA’s 111 emergency call centre daily which affect genuine calls seeking emergency help.
“Within a 12-hour period, more than 5,000 emergency calls are received with about 1,000 being legitimate callers and the rest being nuisance calls.
“Most of the time we have the same caller calling 50 to 60 times.
“Some of these callers use vulgar language toward our call takers and it takes a toll on our staff,” Tago said.

Legislation needed
SJA council chairperson Dame Jean Kekedo said a legislation was needed to enable the tracking of calls and making it illegal to make false calls to public emergency numbers.
“Often ambulance crew arrive at the scene of a reported emergency only to learn that the callers have lied about the emergency,” she said.
“This is a total waste of resources that could have been used to help people who genuinely need help.
“Recently, a false call led to the attack of the ambulance crew, resulting in thousands of Kina worth of damage to the ambulance vehicle.
“The mental trauma ambulance officers endure from such attacks and the stress call takers face daily responding to thousands of calls are very concerning for the ambulance service.
“There needs to be tough laws in place to protect our ambulance first responders so they can go about saving lives.
“Legislation enabling the tracking of calls and making it illegal to make false calls to public emergency numbers like 111, will help the ambulance service proactively act to address the 4,000 nuisance calls each day.”
It is paramount that a legislation is needed to go before Parliament to protect the men and women of this important organisation as there is no existing legislation to protect SJA staff in the country.
It needs to be seriously addressed as it is a matter that cannot be debated and forgotten.
Such a law will save time and resources for the first responders which will lead to an improvement in their services and ensure that it continues to save lives.

Black Wednesday
The events of Wednesday, Jan 10, will forever be an unforgettable day for many in PNG.
For the Green Angels, who have also had their fair share of troublesome times, this was another one of those days.
They responded to about 50 emergencies in relation to the chaos that ensued in other centres, including Port Moresby.
SJA spokesperson Lulu Mark said the service had attended to 269 emergency incidents, surpassing a typical volume of between 80 and 100 for a 48-hour period.
Mark said around 50 of those incidents were related to the unrest.
“Ten in Lae in Morobe, one in Kokopo, East New Britain and the rest in NCD,” she said.
Mark said for the cases related to the unrest, the emergencies were caused by burns from building fires, gunshots and trauma.
She said with the unrest, the ambulance activated a major incident command early that afternoon and had responded to an influx of calls, mainly trauma emergency around the city.
“The reports of emergency incidents were spread around Port Moresby on Wednesday (Jan 10),” she said.
“On Thursday, Lae reported a high number of emergency incidents directly related to the unrest.
She said one of the challenges the ambulance officers had faced was security.
“The ambulance service was responding to life life-threatening emergencies as quickly as possible and doing all possible to maintain the safety and security of the St John people at the same time,” she said.
“Ambulance officers responding into the heat of rioting wore ballistic vests and ballistic helmets to protect them from stray bullets or other projectiles.”
Ambulance officer Alexander Dimain, while sharing his experience in responding to emergency incidents on Wednesday, said it was nothing like a normal day.
“This time we drove to an emergency scene and we were told there were casualties with burns, bullet wounds, trauma or lacerations from going through the debris of the looted shops,” he said.
“Some were seriously injured and there were reports of people dying but we were not able to confirm those reports. We were attending to one patient and were getting requests to see the others just around the corner.
“We moved from one end of the city to the other and back.
“We were stretched but we tried to give the best that we can.
“It was the first time for many of us to respond to such a major emergency incident.
“This situation highlighted the excellent coordination by the ambulance operations center and the strong team spirit we have.
“It was also good to see the communities supporting us and letting us through to help the injured amidst the chaos.”
Black Wednesday and other peak periods of emergency cases are a clear indication to support SJA in their work across the country.