Critical shortage of vollies puts 24-hour St John service at risk

A critical shortage of St John’s Ambulance volunteers to operate the service in Onslow means the town may no longer have guaranteed 24-hour-a-day coverage.

The Onslow sub-centre is run solely by volunteers with the support of local Community Paramedic Katie Evans.

Ms Evans said with only one daytime volunteer and seven volunteers on the books to cover night shifts currently, they were struggling to guarantee full-time coverage.

“In my role I am at the sub-centre to train and recruit but have had to start doing call outs myself when there are no volunteers available,” she said.

“During the day there is only one volunteer available and at night we have varied success getting volunteers who pick up their phones.

“We are also restricted with which volunteers you send out together...a junior must be paired up with a level 2 trained medic, which means the same senior paramedics are out doing every third job when other volunteers are on holidays or not available.”

Ms Evans said she was concerned about losing further volunteers to fatigue.

“If we don’t see change soon, the Onslow Sub Centre will start losing the few volunteers we do have and will end up not having the appropriate coverage required to service such a fast growing town,” she said.

“I understand we have already lost a few volunteers this year, the situation is pretty dire at the moment."

The Onslow ambulance service has been called out to 105 jobs in the town site since the beginning of the year and is on course to surpass the 146 jobs completed last year.

Ms Evans said she believed there was a lack of understanding about the importance of volunteers to the town’s ambulance service.

“In order to help others, we need people to step out of our comfort zones and volunteer because we can’t keep this up,” she said.

“It would also be great if we could get to a point where Onslow is self-sufficient for big events like the rodeo, in the past we have had to rely on volunteers to come up from Karratha which depletes their resources too.

“The job isn’t outside anyone’s capabilities and free training is provided. We just need your time and enthusiasm.”

St John’s Ambulance regional manager Wil White said volunteers could become involved with St John Ambulance WA in a variety of ways.

In addition to providing ambulance care, St John Ambulance WA transfers patients between hospitals, clinics and nursing homes, and works closely with the Royal Flying Doctor Service in administering medical assistance to those in need.

For more information regarding volunteering with St John Ambulance WA in Onslow, please contact Katie Evans on 0417 467 098 or visit www.sthjohnchangelives.com.au

For more on this story, pick up the Pilbara News next week.