Vaccination remains our best defence against COVID-19 and St John is committed to widespread vaccination to protect our people, our patients, and our communities.
St John is focused on improving the health and wellbeing of New Zealanders, and the vaccination of our workforce is a positive step forward both in improving public confidence when interacting with St John, and making it safer for our people.
St John has worked alongside our people to encourage and support vaccination since it became available. We can confirm as of Tuesday 16 November 2021, that 100 percent of our ambulance officers in patient facing roles have received at least one dose of the vaccine under the requirements of the COVID-19 Public Health Response (Vaccinations) Amendment Order 2021.
We are actively supporting the very small number of our people from across the organisation who have not provided their vaccination status or have chosen not to be vaccinated at this time.
Across our organisation, less than one percent of our paid workforce, and less than two percent of our volunteer workforce are unable to continue in their roles. Within ambulance operations, less than two percent of paid and volunteer ambulance personnel have chosen not to get vaccinated at this time.
*Nationally, 18 full-time paid emergency ambulance personnel and 59 volunteer emergency ambulance personnel have discontinued their service with St John and five employees and 100 volunteers in non-patient facing roles have also discontinued their service with St John. We thank them for their contribution to St John and wish them well in their future endeavours.
St John is confident it can continue to deliver and maintain all its services including community health programmes and emergency ambulance services throughout the country. New Zealanders can be assured that ambulance crews will continue to treat all patients in emergencies, regardless of vaccination status.
All St John ambulance officers are well trained and experienced in treating patients with infectious diseases all year round, including those with COVID-19, and to limit the risk of infection and to protect the public and keep our people safe, frontline ambulance officers are following strict clinical guidelines and taking universal precautions including routinely wearing Ministry of Health (MOH) recommended personal protective equipment (PPE) and changing these between patients.
St John has a range of contingency measures for when COVID-19 patient demand escalates and we are continuing to work closely with District Health Boards and the Ministry of Health to ensure we are aligned.
St John is encouraging the public to only call 111 in an emergency and reminding New Zealanders to seek health advice when unwell by phoning their usual health professional or Healthline in the first instance.
Please attribute to Emma Butler, St John Deputy Chief Executive – People & Organisational Strategy.
*Please note these numbers are subject to change as some people may decide to get vaccinated at a later date.