Minister for Health, Jelta Wong with the support of the Indian High Commission and UN has allocated land cruiser ambulances to St John Ambulance in response to the COVID-19 surge in the country.
The country has been facing an enormous rise in cases relating to COVID-19 and the delta strain, exposing the St Johns Ambulance to face struggles as calls for assistance grows.
Minister Wong expressed his gratitude towards the Indian and UN partnership for procuring the much-needed ambulances that have arrived at a time where the pandemic has ravaged the country’s health system.
Through the partnership 10 ambulances have been donated, with four made available in the city and two of these ambulances will be immediately used by St John in NCD and one to Lae once fitted out.
He said: “If it had not been for the assistance of our foreign partners, we would be struggling to get equipment out to our rural areas as well as our city and it is greatly appreciated by our country.
St John CEO Matt Canon was grateful for the timely assistance and thanked Minister Wong for his quick response in allocating the ambulances in a short period.
“For this increase case load in the city we are seeing a tripling in calls for ambulances where some people waiting hours in severe acute respiratory illness. These ambulances that Minister Wong has organized in a very short amount of time, with the support of the partners will make a big impact in helping us to respond to cases.”
Mr Canon added: “Already the PNG Fire service will be putting fire fighters onto the ambulances this week to drive the ambulances, so we can add more ambulances on road. These fire fighters will be partnered with qualified ambulance officers in the city.”
UNDP Resident Representative, Dirk Wagner said that the COVID surge has seen emergency response services stretched to their limits. “These ambulances will help assist in alleviating this, but it still remains critical that we roll out vaccinations as a priority.”