St John has historic and long-standing funding issues which have been well-documented and are now exacerbated by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
We are grateful for the Coalition Government’s recent support in Budget 2020 which has helped St John to get through the current financial year with some support for next year.
We appreciate that the Government has been listening to St John and are confident that a more sustainable ambulance funding model will be introduced in 2021 when the emergency ambulance service contract is due for renewal.
However, we still face a significant gap for this coming financial year (from July 2020) which we need to address now. We are hopeful that we may get additional support from our Government partners but meantime we have to plan for cost-saving measures now.
We are working through the detail of what these cost savings will look like and will be in a position to share with our people first and foremost, and then wider, by the end of the month.
Please attribute to Peter Bradley, St John CEO.
-ENDS-
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION AND IMAGES CONTACT:
Beverley Tse
St John Communications Advisor
M 0273181553
E beverley.tse@stjohn.org.nz