St John Ambulance

The St John Ambulance crew was heading to an emergency at 7pm on Monday 12^th June when the ambulance was stoned at 2-mile in the Moresby-South electorate. The ambulance was responding to a patient injured from a fall.

St John management said when ambulances have lights and sirens on it shows that it is a critical life-threatening priority one case. It said that one or two from a group of men at 2-Mile chose to stone the ambulance when they could have let the ambulance pass.

According to the latest statistics from St John, patients in Central Province, East New Britain, and Morobe are waiting twice as long for an ambulance compared to those in NCD. The lack of adequate ambulance stations and trained personnel in these regions is a major concern, especially during emergencies. 

The longer response times mean that patients are more likely to suffer complications or even lose their lives. 

Chief executive officer, Matt Cannon had led the SJA team to the accident scene after receiving an emergency call that a vehicle had veered off the road.

“Four ambulance units were sent to the scene to help the injured men who were being rescued out of the vehicle by bystanders. The ambulance crews attended to five male patients in their 20s and 30s. We attended to three casualties that appeared to have suffered serious injuries including possible fractures to their pelvis and lower limbs with potential life-threatening injuries.

The Mark 2 vehicle was traveling from 17 mile to Port Moresby when it veered off the road.

St. John Ambulance was at the scene minutes later, where officers attended to each one of them. The driver and passengers survived the accident.

Eye witness Joe Malai, in Tok Pisin, explained what happened.

Drunk people will be the biggest burden for the ambulance service and hospitals over the Christmas period.

Drunken fights, Drunk drivers, Drunk risk takers and such actions all result in injuries to the drunk person, and sadly other people too.

The Christmas usually period see a rise in trauma-related emergencies for the ambulance service and hospitals.

Dr. Mangu Kenino said injuries and accidents during the festive season are often a result of excess consumption of alcohol.

Australian High Commission Minster Counsellor, Economics, Health and Infrastructure, Diane Barclay handed over the keys to St John Chief Executive Officer, Matt Cannon at St John headquarters in Port Moresby on Wednesday 27 July.

The ambulances were funded by the Australian Government as part of the Papua New Guinea-Australia Partnership to boost St John’s capacity to address the high number of emergency responses in NCD, Central and Gulf provinces. 

Among routine emergency workloads like maternal cases, heart attacks, accidents and stroke, ambulance crews were extra busy responding to many people injured through violence.

Much of this violence was related to alcohol consumption.

On Wednesday night there have been multiple cases happening simultaneously in Lae and Kokopo, which exceeded ambulance availability and resulted in delays reaching all patients quickly.

St John Ambulance has been supporting the local communities by operating and providing a free emergency ambulance service, first aid education and volunteer’s services.

These have proven to be vitally important in improving our healthcare and supporting better health outcomes for the people of PNG. 

St John Ambulance has been supporting the local communities by operating and providing a free emergency ambulance service, first aid education and volunteer’s services.

These have proven to be vitally important in improving our healthcare and supporting better health outcomes for the people of PNG. 

The Advanced Life Support and Advanced Prehospital Trauma Care courses received earlier this month are internationally accredited. 

The courses were facilitated by Parasol EMT in collaboration with St John Ambulance and the PNG Society of Emergency Medicine.  

The courses included Advanced Life Support Level 1 (ALS1), Advanced Life Support Level 2 (ALS2) and Prehospital Trauma Life Support (PHTLS). The fifth day included an instructor course to prepare St John Ambulance doctors and nurses to facilitate future courses in Papua New Guinea.