Email advisory from St John New Zealand

Email advisory from St John New Zealand Over the past month St John Ambulance has been experiencing intermittent but persistent episodes where demand has exceeded resourcing. While there are always peaks and troughs, over the past few weeks demand has been consistently high. The week beginning 12 July was our highest 111 call and ambulance response volume since records began, and we have also seen significantly greater demand within patient transfer service (PTS).

We had predicted an increase in demand through this time due to winter illness, however the increase has been more profound than anticipated, which appears to be reflected throughout all of health.

As a result, we have decided to stand up an Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) in Auckland, to provide operational support through this period of high demand and to help ensure the welfare of our people and our patients.

We released public advice last week and have now developed specific advice for primary care and aged care. Please support by cascading this advice to your networks.

1. Primary care Please have a higher than usual threshold for requesting an ambulance response to your medical facility, ensuring that prior to calling an ambulance: • It is clear that the patient requires transport to hospital by ambulance and that other forms of transport (for example, transport by taxi or a family member) have been considered.

• If an ambulance response is required, the person requesting the ambulance has all of the required information (for example, patient name, NHI and provisional diagnosis) and uses the health professionals’ line on 0800 262 665 (not 111) to enable the call to be triaged by a clinician.

• Please appreciate that due to the high demand, there is likely to be delays in St John being able to respond an ambulance if the patient’s condition is not immediately life-threatening.

2. Aged care Please have a higher than usual threshold for requesting an ambulance response to your aged care facility, ensuring that prior to calling an ambulance: • It is clear that the patient requires transport to hospital by ambulance.

• If the patient has a non-urgent clinical problem, all efforts are made by aged care facility staff to liaise with clinicians in primary care (for example, an on-call GP and local DHB/PHO services such as catheter nurses or district nurses) and for the patient to be clinically managed within the aged care facility if possible.

• If an ambulance response is required, the staff member requesting the ambulance has all of the required information (for example, patient name, NHI and provisional diagnosis) and uses the health professionals’ line on 0800 262 665 (not 111) to enable the call to be triaged by a clinician.

• Please appreciate that due to the high demand, there is likely to be delays in St John being able to respond an ambulance to aged care facilities if the patient’s condition is not immediately lifethreatening.

We continue to monitor demand for ambulance services and will advise when we are able to return to our business as usual state. Please let me know if you need anything in the meantime.

Andrew Mumford NZDAP BSc MBA MNZIM Communications Business Partner | Ambulance Operations St John New Zealand | Hato Hone Aotearoa