The St Johns Ambulance PNG has received K75,000 to support the redevelopment of its new National Ambulance Control Centre and continue work on its aeromedical retrieval services in the country.
BSP Financial Group Limited (BSP) yesterday presented a cheque of K75,000 to St John Ambulance PNG to support their work.
It will help enhance continue the SJA response in NCD, Central & Gulf and other centres in the country.
Chief of Ambulance Services Rigona Rita who received the cheque on behalf of St John said the donation will go towards supporting their new building construction and the national ambulance call centre, and part of the money will go into the aeromedical evacuation trust fund account.
“This good donation shows that BSP values St John as a significant service provider in the country and this is a good step forward and we hope to see more of it happen with PNG business houses in the future. I thank BSP Financial Group for their continued support,” said Rigona Rita.
"The donation shows BSP values St John as a significant service provider in the country. This is a good step forward and we hope to see more of it happen with PNG business houses in future.” Chief Ambulance officer, Rita said.
The K75,000 donation will be distributed as follows: K50, 000 will support the redevelopment of the new St John National Ambulance Call Centre and K25 000 to go towards the aeromedical evacuation Trust Fund account.
St John manages the aeromedical evacuation trust fund account to provide free maternal medevacs for mothers in remote areas of Western, Gulf, Central, Oro and Milne Bay.
BSP Head of Marketing and Public Relations, Gorethy Semi presented the cheque to the St John Ambulance, saying BSP acknowledged the great work that St John Ambulance Services is providing for the communities.
She said this is not the first time for BSP supported St John Ambulance. In 2018, we donated a K225,000 customised Emergency Response Vehicle that covered maintenance and insurance support over Five (5) years, effective from 2018 to 2022," she said.
“Our support goes back as far as 2018 when we supported with a vehicle and servicing of that vehicle during the APEC period and then we continued to do so up until today.
“Today we are donating about K75,000 to St Johns as mentioned, part of it is for their operations and part of it is for their air support that they have in place now.”
“Our support goes back as far as 2018 when we supported with a vehicle and servicing of that vehicle during the APEC period and then we continued to do so up until today” Semi added.
St John CEO Matt Cannon said, with the support from BSP, St John would be able to upgrade the uninterruptable power supply for the ambulance control centre to keep the emergency coordination centre continuing to operate during power outages.
The remaining K25 000 will be put into the trust fund to help us retrieve mothers and babies suffering life threatening emergencies in rural areas.