On New Year’s Eve between the hours of 10pm and 2am St John’s job rate will more than double and a high percentage of those incidents will be related to alcohol. New Year is traditionally one of the busiest times of year for the ambulance service nationwide and St John has been planning for 2013’s New Year celebrations for some months.
Last year in known party hotspots like Mt Maunganui, Queenstown and Gisborne incident numbers rose by as many as 45 in the crucial hours either side of midnight and by up to an extra 30 in the main centres of Auckland CBD, Christchurch and Hamilton.
Most of the increased incident numbers during New Years could be attributed to alcohol with assaults (including sexual assault, fights and stabbings), falls/back injuries, unconscious/passing out, sick people and overdoses forming the top five incident categories during this four-hour spike.
Last year St John’s operations planning and extra resources worked well to meet public need, reduce risk and ensure the safety of frontline staff. This year’s planning and provisions have been modelled similarly with a National Ambulance Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) in place until the peak workload has returned to acceptable levels.
St John will have 86 additional vehicles operating throughout the country and about 170 extra frontline staff (who are a mix of paid and volunteer ambulance officers) working on the night.
“Essentially work on New Year’s Eve and Day is very predictable with a recognisable peak the two hours before and after midnight which allows us to plan and provision well. We work closely with other emergency services and maintain a national EOC which is a sizeable operation,” says Michael Brook, St John Operations Director.
St John wishes the nation a safe and happy New Year.
-ENDS-
BACKGROUND:
St John is the largest primary healthcare provider in New Zealand. Our ambulance officers treat and transport more than 400 thousand patients a year. St John has approximately 1,200 full time equivalent paid ambulance officers and approximately 2,800 volunteer ambulance officers nationwide.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Victoria Hawkins
St John Media Relations Manager
T 09 526 0528 I X 7877 I F 09 526 0553 | M 027 483 4199
E Victoria.Hawkins@stjohn.org.nz