•St John Ambulance service has met or exceeded response targets
•More than 300 additional staff employed
•More upgrades to come
ST JOHN Ambulance has performed better than its set public response time targets and bolstered its workforce by more than 300 in three years, Health Minister Kim Hames announced today.
Dr Hames said the additional staff and resources had been made possible by a $149.6million over four years boost from the State Government in the 2010-11 Budget.
“The aim of this massive investment was to ensure St John Ambulance had the resources to make a real change to emergency medical care in this State, and the results speak for themselves,” he said.
Figures from March this year show St John Ambulance performed better than set response time targets in the metropolitan area. Of priority 1 calls, 91.1 per cent were responded to within 15 minutes, up from 84.3 per cent at the same time last year. Of priority 2 calls, 91.5 per cent responded to within 25 minutes, up from 80.9 last year and for priority 3 calls, 96.6 per cent of cases responded to within 60 minutes, up from 70.4 last year.
“This huge improvement comes in the face of increased demand on services which have been experienced across the health sector,” the Minister said.
“In the Perth metropolitan area, St John Ambulance has recorded a 12 per cent increase in activity from the same time last year. This has been met by an additional 22 ambulance crews for day shift, eight additional crews overnight and an additional 14 patient transport crews throughout the week.
“In addition, the triple-zero calls from the public are being answered more quickly than ever before. In March this year, St John Ambulance answered 14,006 calls, with 94.7 per cent answered within the 10-second target.”
Dr Hames said the $149.6million boost had also enabled St John Ambulance to introduce a new electronic patient care record system and would allow ongoing improvements such as more new ambulances, additional on-road resources and more ambulance stations over coming years.
Fact File
•In 2010-11, the Liberal-National Government strengthened emergency ambulances services in Western Australia by investing $149.6million over four years
•The investment followed a major review into the operations of St John Ambulance
•For more information, visit http://www.ambulance.net.au
