Unlike people living within NCD, patients in the Central Province, East New Britain, and Morobe wait twice as long for an ambulance.
St John Ambulance, the emergency ambulance service in Papua New Guinea, has an urgent need for more staff at ambulance stations in these provinces. According to the latest statistics, patients in Central Province, East New Britain, and Morobe are waiting twice as long for an ambulance compared to those in NCD. The lack of adequate ambulance stations and trained personnel in these regions is a major concern, especially during emergencies.
The longer response times mean that patients are more likely to suffer complications or even lose their lives. It is crucial that this issue is addressed and people in every part of the country have access to timely and efficient emergency medical services. St John Ambulance is committed to providing quality emergency ambulance services across PNG for the Government.
However, it needs support from the provincial government and other stakeholders to staff more ambulance stations in Central, Morobe, and East New Britain Province. By funding additional ambulance stations and recruiting more trained personnel, St John can significantly reduce response times and save more lives.
The government and other stakeholders are urged to join hands with St John in this mission. St John’s Momase regional commander Anderson Poumb said; “We have seen an increase in people calling for emergency help from the ambulance service, but it takes longer to respond because we need more St John People to operate our ambulances in Lae”.
“We have three ambulances in Lae, but funding from the Morobe Provincial Government only allows us to staff one of these ambulances.”
“Current funding from Lae City Authority helps us employ eight full-time professional ambulance staff, including a senior registered nurse. But this is only for Lae City.”
“We get calls every day for areas outside Lae City. We only have one ambulance. At any one time, we have three people, often critical, waiting hours for the ambulance to help them.”
“For example, when an ambulance crew is attending to a case at 12-Mile, they have to take that patient to the hospital. When other calls come through, we must finish with that first patient and respond to the next. It could mean patients are waiting hours before much needed help gets to them.”
Mr Poumb pointed out that more and more people outside of Lae City are hearing of the great work the ambulance service is doing and therefore calling 111 for the ambulance service. Poumb added, “What we need is support for ten more ambulance officers and an agreement with the Morobe Provincial Government so we can operate more ambulances for Morobe province.”
“The people of Morobe province who live outside of Lae City deserve to have access to this great ambulance system.” St John is operating in Lae based on a memorandum of agreement with the Lae City Authority and Morobe Provincial Health Authority.
The MOA doesn’t cover responses outside of Lae City, although St John does its best to provide care to critical emergencies outside Lae City.