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.
When calling 111, our ambulance staff will continue to be there for all patients who require an ambulance response, including those with suspected or confirmed COVID-19. This includes cases where resuscitation is needed, such as in a cardiac arrest. Our emergency ambulance service does not discriminate based on COVID-19 or vaccination status.
Before our ambulance staff enter the scene, they may ask you some COVID-19 related questions. It is important that you answer the questions to the best of your knowledge so our ambulance crews can take the appropriate steps to protect them and the public when they come to help you.
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 known to have or are suspected of having COVID-19.
Our ambulance officers are routinely wearing N95 masks, eye protection, and gloves for all patient interactions and changing these between patients.