Ambulance staff treat a shooting victim on Nuffield Avenue in Marewa in December. Photo / NZME
Ambulance staff treat a shooting victim on Nuffield Avenue in Marewa in December. Photo / NZME
111 calls made to St John ambulance for gunshot and stab wounds, and pregnancy, childbirth and miscarriages saw a nearly 50 per cent spike in Hawke's Bay in 2021.
The data revealed to Hawke's Bay Today shows that in 2021, St John received a total of 21,361 calls for helpin Hawke's Bay, which was a 2.9 per cent increase from 2020 (20,769 calls).
There were 74 calls made to St John for pregnancy, childbirth and miscarriages in 2020, compared with 110 in 2021.
For gunshot and stab wounds 48 calls were made in 2020, and 71 in 2021.
In 2021 St John recorded 18,527 incidents with an emergency vehicle response, up 2.7 percent from 2020 (18,036 incidents with an emergency vehicle response).
The data only reflected the number of emergency ambulance service incidents received, not the number of patients and therefore actual patient numbers are higher.
Calls for industrial machinery accidents saw the sharpest drop from 10 in 2020, to 4 in 2021.
St John Deputy Chief Executive of Ambulance Operations Dan Ohs said 2021 was another extremely busy year with the Covid-19 pandemic continuing to create ongoing challenges across the emergency ambulance service.
"This prolonged significant demand is compounded by a challenging work environment due to Covid-19 and longer times for ambulance crews to complete 111 call-outs due to additional safety precautions that must be taken both at the scene, during transport and at hospital."
In Hawke's Bay reports from a health practitioner (3464 in 2020, and 3717 in 2021), chest pain (1756 in 2020, 1842 in 2021) and breathing problems (1645 in 2020, 1743 in 2021) made up a majority of the calls.
Police at a shooting incident in Napier in December, that was also attended by St John staff. Photo / NZME
Nationally, St John saw a notable increase in patients with chest pain and breathing problems as well, which along with the rise in mental health related callouts, St John attributed to the direct impact of Covid or Covid lockdowns.
2021 saw the completion of St John's four-year project to double crew all transporting ambulances, of which 99.8 per cent of transporting ambulances are now fully crewed.
This has significantly benefited rural New Zealand which now has the same crewing levels as urban areas.
St John Ambulance was preparing for another challenging year ahead in 2022 as New Zealand moved from a pandemic response to Covid-19 to endemic.
"We've seen the impact of the Omicron variant in other parts of the world and it's just a matter of time before we experience a widespread outbreak here in Aotearoa," Ohs said.
"St John is well adept at responding to patients with infectious conditions and we have several contingency plans underway to lessen the impact it might have on our capability, including bolstering our recruitment and training efforts to bring on board more ambulance officers."
