Responding to emergencies 24-7 is of top priority for the Saint John Ambulance (SJA) team, but when dealing with unnecessary hiccups along the way can cause damages and loss of money which can be used to help patients.
A SJA crew was stoned at 2mile in the Moresby-South Electorate when the crew was heading to an emergency around 7pm on Monday 12th of June.
The ambulance was responding with lights and sirens to attend to a patient from a fall from height incident. Ambulances have lights and sirens on when it is a critical life-threatening priority one case.
It was unfortunate that one or two from a group of men at 2-Mile chose to stone the ambulance instead of just letting the ambulance pass through.
This ambulance is brand new and will incur over K7000 in repairs because of the actions of just one or two in the community.
It is vital money that could have been used to help patients. This damage will take weeks to fix.
St John is now calling on the members of the community to take ownership of the ambulance to take measures to prevent damage to the ambulances through awareness in community meetings.