As an essential emergency service, St John is well positioned to respond to a pandemic like COVID-19.

We continue to step forward and provide emergency ambulance services throughout New Zealand under all COVID-19 alert levels. All 111 calls are triaged to determine the urgency of the patient's condition and we aim to send the most appropriate ambulance to the patient in greatest need as soon as possible.

St John ambulance officers frequently deal with infectious diseases and to protect our patients and our people, we follow best practice clinical guidelines, including wearing Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) when attending patients with suspected COVID-19. 

We will continue to ensure contaminated surfaces and equipment are cleaned or safely disposed of in biohazard bags and keep the ambulance environment as safe as possible for patients and staff. 

St John continues to operate its Patient Transfer Services. Our drivers are following Ministry of Health guidelines to keep patients and themselves safe. This includes increased hygiene and cleaning in our vehicles such as wiping of seats, door handles and steering wheel.

All St John First Aid training courses are operating as normal at venues right across the country.

At Alert Level 1, while class numbers return to normal and physical distancing is no longer required, we will continue our focus on health and safety. This includes maintaining good hygiene practices to ensure you feel comfortable in your learning environment.

• Hand sanitiser will be readily available to participants.
• You will not be required to breathe into the manikins.
• You are welcome to bring along your own face mask and wear it in class.

If you feel at all unwell or have a cough on the day of the course, please support our efforts to protect others and reschedule your course for another day (free of charge).

While our standard terms and conditions state there are no refunds for First Aid courses, you can swap to a later date and/or location free of charge.

Please be assured your medical alarm will continue to be monitored 24/7 under all COVID-19 alert levels. Please do activate your alarm if you require emergency assistance.

Our Telecare representatives are able to visit our customers to respond to medical alarm activations in the same way as before the COVID-19 pandemic.

We will be recording details of anyone present at customers’ homes we visit, to assist the Government with contact tracing, should the need arise.

St John Event Health Services are back to business as usual.

Our National Event Health Services Team are open for bookings and enquiries via eventhealthservices@stjohn.org.nz or 0800 4 EVENTS.

Due to the volume of postponed events now being rebooked, we advise booking early.

Although there are no restrictions on gathering under Alert Level 1, we ask event organisers to consider following the Event Sector Voluntary Code 2020, in order to keep participants, spectators, and workers safe.

For more detail about the Event Sector Voluntary Code and advice for event organisers, contact eventhealthservices@stjohn.org.nz.

All St John Health Shuttles are operating as per usual. 

At Alert Level 1, St John Community Care services are resuming service delivery on a case by case basis, as and when our partner facilities are ready to have volunteers back in the workplace. The following services are operating:

• Friends of the Emergency Departments (FEDs)
• Hospital Friends
• Community Carers
• Outreach Therapy Pets

Our Caring Caller service has continued to operate throughout all alert levels.

All St John Youth divisions around New Zealand continue to meet either face-to-face or online.

Contact your local division to find out where and when meetings are being held. 

St John is a charity and only part funded by Government. Our charitable status means we continue to need to fundraise throughout the year to ensure our frontline emergency ambulance service has the right equipment and resources to enable St John to be there for all New Zealand communities.

Like many organisations and charities throughout New Zealand, we have been greatly impacted by COVID-19 including direct losses in fundraising and commercial income. We are grateful for the generosity of New Zealanders and organisations who support us with donations, fundraising events and by purchasing St John products and services.

St John’s community educators have resumed face-to-face delivery of the St John in Schools programme in classrooms, for a koha, however, St John is still offering virtual delivery for any schools or groups that would like that mode of delivery.

All our face-to-face fundraising activities are operating as normal and within the Ministry of Health guidelines.

For more information about face-to-face fundraising, please visit Where are your Fundraisers working?