St John updates ambulance fleet

St John has doubled the number of new ambulances it buys as more patients are treated and the number of incidents attended soars.

Twenty-four high-tech vehicles, which cost about $200,000 each including medical equipment, were added to the northern region's fleet in the 2008-9 financial year.

Eighteen more were approved for the current year, and most of these are now in operation.

St John northern regional operations manager Gary Salmon said the high number of new units purchased was required to replace the ageing vehicles that had travelled more than 400,000km each.

"The arrival of these vehicles significantly boosts morale among our frontline crews."

He said once the new ambulances had been distributed to some of the 44 stations in the region - around Auckland, Northland, Hauraki and Coromandel - annual replacement numbers were expected to return to normal - usually between 12 and 14 vehicles.

The new ambulance are Mercedes-Benz Sprinters, fitted with state-of-the-art Stryker brand stretchers.

These are widely used throughout the world and can be lowered and lifted to varying heights.

The ambulances included all the latest safety features for patients, Mr Salmon said.

All new ambulances have computers which transfer incident data between the vehicle and the St John communications centre - "like a big pager", he said.

They also have vehicle locators so the communications centre knows where the ambulance is.

Five of the new ambulances were van-style units rather than the usual chassis cab vehicles and held one stretcher instead of the usual two.

They include seats for crew, positioned so they can treat patients while wearing seat belts.

St John tested a prototype unit, first in Auckland and then around the country for a year.

It says the unites have proved popular with ambulance officers.

In the 2008-9 financial year, St John treated and transported 356,562 patients, 42 per cent of them in the northern region.

This was more than 13,000 above last year.

The service attended 295,311 emergency incidents, 20,000 more than in the previous year.

The vehicles were purchased by St John, using a grant from the Lion Foundation.

FIRST AID LOG

St John Ambulances:

* Travelled 16.4 million km in the 2008-9 financial year
* 38 per cent of travel was in the northern region
* 66,800km more than last year
* Treated and transported 356,562 patients
* Attended 295,311 emergency incidents