New National Ambulance Operations Centre Opens
The PNG St John Ambulance Council is delighted to announce the official opening of our new emergency ambulance operations centre in Port Moresby.
The Centre is an initiative of the Department of Prime Minister & NEC and the Department of Health, in partnership with the Papua New Guinea St John Ambulance.
A doubling of dispatch capacity
The new Centre provides the PNG St John Ambulance with a much-improved ability to coordinate ambulance services.
The new Centre more than doubles the number of call-taker and dispatcher desks, meaning the centre has a theoretical capacity to support some 120 ambulances and ten flight medical teams at any one-time around Papua New Guinea, saving lives and helping people access healthcare.
Funded by Prime Minister’s Department and State Owned Enterprise
The Department of Prime Minister and National Executive Council invested PGK 500,000 and Kumul Consolidated Holdings a further PGK 1,000,000 for the construction of the Centre.
Earlier this year, the Australian Government supported a significant upgrade of radio-data communications systems including a hybrid of Motorola LTE and VHF and CAD ICT systems. The New Zealand Government and United Nations Development Program assisted with supply and installation of Barrett HF radios for rural ambulances.
Prime Minister Announces Further Support to Ambulance Services
In support of PNG St John Ambulance Service, Prime Minister James Marape said, “St John Ambulance Service will be allocated increased budgetary support in 2023 to support their key corporate objectives as outlined in the strategic plans.
“My Department is also supporting the review of the outdated legislation to incorporate new amendments that would bring changes to the way St John Ambulance Service would deliver and respond to ambulance services in PNG. The amendment is coordinated together with St John Ambulance Service and the Department of Justice and Attorney General (DJAG),” the Prime Minister said.
Prime Minister Marape said the intention is for the revised law to ensure St John Ambulance Service is mandated to perform specialist functions and responsibilities, for instance, to allow them to recruit retrieval emergency medical technicians to be able to provide high quality and administer emergency services during emergency situations to save lives of the communities.
Did you know…?
Last year the ambulance service responded to over 13,000 emergency incidents.
This year the ambulance service has already responded to over 15,500 emergencies!
Over 150 men and women serve St John Ambulance in ambulance service related roles in four regions of PNG.
You can find out more about the PNG St John Ambulance at www.stjohn.org.pg
