Turangi St John will be double crewed

After handling numerous call outs with only one crew member, Turangi’s St John will benefit from the Government’s latest funding announcement.

In the beginning of May, St John welcomed the news that more than $100 million will be included in this year’s budget and a significant amount of that will provide double crewing of all emergency ambulance responses over the next four years.

Turangi and Taupo will be two of the first areas to see it implemented.

District operations manager, Jeremy Gooders, said up until the announcement, they relied heavily on volunteers to fully crew the ambulances.

With Turangi only having two volunteers at the moment, the ambulance was double crewed only 30 percent of the time.

‘‘It’s got an inherent risk for the officer and risk to the patient,’’ Gooders said.

‘‘If the patient was really sick, they’d have to call for another ambulance which is not a good use of resources.’’

Gooders mentioned there had been some rumours around the township that St John were taking the ambulance out of Turangi.

‘‘That is not the case. If anything we are improving the service,’’ he said.

‘‘Double crewing is good for our staff’s health and safety and good for our patients. It’s a win, win.’’

With the funding, it means there will be 373 staff especially for double crewing the ambulances.

‘‘Ending single crewing is one of the most significant developments in our ambulance service history,’’ St John, chief executive Peter Bradley.

‘‘We will be able to recruit 430 frontline jobs over four years and provide rural New Zealand with the same crewing levels as urban areas – a move that will save more lives and make it safer for our crews.’’

Bradley added that phasing out single-crewed emergency ambulances has been a priority for several years, and the new funding model means St John can now plan for it with certainty.

Along with double crewing, St John will also be introducing a first response unit into Turangi.

‘‘That means when an ambulance is already on a job, there will be a second level of response there,’’ Gooders said.

‘‘It hasn’t been available in the Turangi area before.’’