Lives at risk on remote highway

When a minivan and a truck collided north of Springs Junction last year, ambulance staff had to travel from as far away as two hours, as the nearby Murchison St John station was unmanned.

Motueka woman Davila Renee Koroi, 32, died in the crash, while five other people suffered moderate to serious injuries.

The fatal accident has highlighted the shortfall of St John staff that could be putting lives at risk on remote stretches of Tasman district’s roads.

Murchison Volunteer Fire Brigade officer John Hebberd said he was one of the first emergency services at the ‘‘traumatic’’ scene, along with police.

‘‘I was there, working on the patient that died.’’

Other services in the region that attended the crash included PRIME doctors from Murchison and Reefton, Reefton fire service and ambulance, two Wakefield ambulances, the Nelson Marlborough Rescue Helicopter, and the Christchurch Westpac Rescue Helicopter. Murchison is 22km from the Shenandoah, Wakefield is 120km away, and Reefton is 84km.

Hebberd said no-one was on call that day from St John Murchison.

‘‘St John staff are struggling very much. They could do with a lot more.’’

Several people in the area back Hebberd’s views. Rural Communities Minister and West CoastTasman MP Damien O’Connor said he was aware of the shortage of St John coverage from Murchison. He said St John had to ‘‘step up’’.

‘‘It comes down to contractual obligations to provide the service. It’s part of the public health system – the Government provides the funding and support for that. If St John have a contract for cover, it’s for them to develop the solution.’’

O’Connor said volunteers weren’t the answer.

‘‘There needs to be cover, and you can’t run a vital public health service on the basis of volunteers.’’

St John has struggled to find volunteers in Murchison for years, and in 2009 a crisis meeting attended by three regional MPs was held to urgently address the shortfall. This was followed by funding for two ambulance officer roles.

At the time, St John had seven volunteers, well short of the 22 recommended.

Murchison emergency workers are called to a high number of road crashes on State Highway 65, so the lack of paramedics affects the many motorists using the road.

St John Tasman District operations manager James McMeekin said Murchison had one paid Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) and three volunteers, along with a PRIME response nurse who could be dispatched from Murchison Hospital. It was recruiting for a second paid, part-time officer.

McMeekin said several resources were available when no ambulance staff were rostered, including rescue helicopters, ‘‘ambulances from nearby Westport, Reefton and Tapawera’’, managers in response vehicles, Fire and Emergency NZ, and the local PRIME doctor.

‘‘The Murchison community can have confidence that St John has appropriate emergency care available for the people of the region.’’

But Murchison district community leader Simon Blakemore said the lack of St John staff was ‘‘putting lives at risk’’.

‘‘If there’s no ambulance, you’ve got to wait for an ambulance to come from another town. Most are at least 1.5 hours away, which is a long time. They wouldn’t put up with that in Auckland.’’

There had been issues with St John over ‘‘quite a number of years’’, he said. ‘‘They have been resolved but it’s fallen into a hole again now.’’

Blakemore said ‘‘pathetic’’ wages was partly responsible for the lack of staff. ‘‘They do get government money, and they’re always holding their hand out for donations, but the model is not working.’’

During the closure of SH1 after the Kaikoura 2016 earthquake, SH65 was used as the alternative, funnelling hundreds of vehicles daily through Murchison for more than a year. Reports from the NZ Transport Agency show there were more than 80 crashes in 2017 in Tasman on SH65 and SH6, with Murchison often the closest emergency service base.