The St. John Ambulance is offering free emergency services to Papua New Guineans.
Chief of Ambulance Service Commissioner Rigona Rita says the ambulance service will not charge any fee to a Papua New Guinean who needs life-saving emergency medical assistance and transportation to a government hospital.
Commissioner Rita says the Ambulance service will not charge any fee because the Government partly funds the Ambulance services. However, the funding does not cover the whole cost of providing the service.
Those requesting St. John Ambulance to transport them to a private hospital will pay a subsidized fee of K450, Non-emergency transport to hospital K40 and transport for a booked medical appointment is K250.
These fees will help cover costs of providing ambulance service for free to 80% of patients.
Rita says if a patient is suffering financially, the St John Duty Manger can exempt the patient from paying.
In 2020, the Ambulance service provided over 9, 000 patients with free care services in NCD, Central, East New Britain, Simbu and Morobe.