During the summer holiday shut down period, between 8am Saturday 22 December and 8am Monday 7 January, St John will remain contactable for urgent incident information.
The summer holiday period is very busy for emergency services and the best way to keep up to date on incidents St John has attended is by following our Media Alerts Twitter account.
Our 111 Clinical Control Centres in Auckland and Christchurch post information on the incidents we attend at @StJohnAlerts.
Each tweet contains a link to stjohn.org.nz where expanded information will be posted when available.
The twitter Media Alerts service is designed to provide our colleagues in the media with information in a timely manner, and reduce media calls into our 111 centres. By keeping our emergency call handlers’ focused on answering 111 calls and dispatching emergency ambulances, we are able to deliver the best service to the New Zealand public. Last year our Clinical Control Centres received over 500,000 calls, and this year (to date) we have received almost 50,000 more calls.
Patient privacy limits the information St John can provide to media and the public. Our Media Alerts contain all the information we can make available at the time. Please note, we do not reply to twitter posts from @StJohnAlerts. It is an unmonitored feed.
If your inquiry is not posted @StJohnAlerts and you are unable to get through to our Clinical Control Centres, please call the St John media pager on 026 2401298.
The information we can provide is –
- Time of incident/emergency 111 call
- Type of incident (motor vehicle, water, medical etc)
- General location but not specific address
- Number of patients
- Status of patient/s
- Which hospital/location patient transported to
The Communications Team wishes you a relaxing and festive holiday season, and thanks you for your support this year. We look forward to working with you in 2019.
-ENDS-
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Chrissy Hamilton
St John National Communications Adviser
M 027 290 9764
E chrissy.hamilton@stjohn.org.nz
or
Ngaire Jones
St John Communications Advisor
M 021 054 9135
E ngaire.jones@stjohn.org.nz