St John Ambulance held a soft launch for its ambulance bay at the Lae fire station today.
The St John Ambulance has attended to six emergency cases so far since commencing operations in Lae last week.
St John will set up operations at the fire station with two fully-kitted ambulances.
This follows the signing of a three-way agreement with the Lae City Authority and Morobe Provincial Health Authority back in December 2020.
SJA acting commissioner and director ambulance service, Rigona Rita, thanked Lae’s fire service chief, acting superintendent, Dennis Hase, for his support in making the initiative happen.
“St John is proud to work alongside the chief fire officer and we thank him for his tremendous leadership in bringing about this initiative.”
MoPHA chairman, David Wissink, said it was good to see everything coming together, and this time, with the support of the fire service as well.
“And I know the discussions we’ve been having about land and whatever with the lands minister, LCA and the PHA; we’ve got various land options but to me, if it can be co-located here, that’s the best option of all.
“From our perspective at the PHA, we welcome the service being set up. The next round of discussions is gonna be, how do we get it out into the districts?”
Momase & Highlands regional commander, chief superintendent Anderson Poumb, said included in the ambulance is a lifepak monitor/defibrillator that will be used to monitor a patient’s vitals as well as revive them if they go into cardiac arrest, a trauma kit, a resuscitation kit as well as a paediatric backpack that contains a birthing kit.
“And then we’ve got a spineboard, that’s for spinal injury and head injury and a spare oxygen.”
Residents are encouraged to take care of this vital service, which means protecting the staff and its equipment.
