Cash means more ambulance staff

St John central region district operations manager Jeremy Gooders said an extra six frontline staff in Tauranga and Mount Maunganui would significantly improve the care the organisation could offer. Photo / John Borren

Nine more St John ambulance staff will be on the frontline in the Bay from December thanks to an additional $6.8 million of funding from ACC and the Ministry of Health.

On top of the extra 57 staff St John promised to fund earlier this year another 101 staff will be employed around the country thanks to yesterday's announcement of an additional $5.5 million contribution from ACC and $1.3 million from the Ministry.

Mount Maunganui St John will receive an extra four full-time qualified ambulance officers and the Tauranga station will get an extra two. Waihi will also get two more staff while Whangamata will get one.

St John central region district operations manager Jeremy Gooders said the extra funding would make a big difference in how fast patients could be reached and how well they were looked after.

"It's specifically to improve our full crewing so the ambulances are fully crewed at every job and also to improve our response in that urban area," he said.

"Obviously we've seen our workload increase significantly in the urban Tauranga and Mount Maunganui area over the last couple of years."

It would also mean more ambulances on the roads, Mr Gooders said.

The increase in staff would also have a knock on effect to the areas serviced by the Te Puke and Katikati crews as there would be more officers to provide back-up if the local unit was tied up, he said. Tauranga and Mount Maunganui were among nine areas specifically targeted due to issues providing full crews.

St John chief executive Peter Bradley said it was the biggest recruitment of additional ambulance staff in the organisation's history.

Across the country ACC was pouring a total of $9.2 million into ambulances services with $2 million for the Wellington Free Ambulance and $1.7 million for St John to fund Maori liaison roles in its clinical team.

The Ministry of Health has also contributed extra funding to the Auckland 111 clinical hub initiative.

The additional funding will start on December 1.

The Bay's staffing boost
*Tauranga: 2
*Mount Maunganui: 4
*Waihi: 2
*Whangamata: 1

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