St Johns paramedics
It was great to have the Health Minister Tony Ryall in the electorate again last week.
After a meeting with the Probus club in Waikanae I took him on a tour of the Horowhenua Health Centre to hear about plans to develop it as an integrated family health centre.
Developing the centre as a one-stop shop for local health services makes sense. Health professionals working together to coordinate services will reduce bureaucracy and focus on improved frontline services for the patient.
One of the highlights was a visit to St Johns Ambulance in Levin to hear about their new pilot scheme, treating people in their own homes and saving unnecessary trips to hospital.
Local paramedics are currently being trained to provide even more clinical skills and services. From December there will be a larger range of medication, technology and treatment available for local patients which is great news.
St Johns is investing $400,000 for a one year pilot that will see five highly trained paramedics and a dedicated vehicle treating more people in their homes, reducing hospital admissions by around 30%, supporting after-hours GP services.
It’s an ambitious target but we’ve seen how successful the Wellington Free Ambulance service has been down the road in Kapiti. In fact Kapiti paramedics are already passing on their skills they’ve learnt to the St Johns team in Horowhenua.
The more people we can treat at home the better, because taking an ambulance all the way to Wellington or Palmerston North hospital for unnecessary treatment is not ideal for patients or the taxpayer.
The Kapiti programme has been hugely successful and thanks to $200,000 in government funding is now offered 24/7 for the trial period.
I’ve had many people stop me in the street to tell me how the paramedics responded quickly to their emergency call, treated and reassured them, and often saved them a trip to hospital.