St John celebrates opening of sub centre

St John Ambulance’s new $4 million, two-storey Karratha sub centre has officially opened a year after construction commenced.

The De Grey Place facility will incorporate first aid training, ambulance and regional offices.

St John Ambulance Karratha station manager James Byles said the building was a huge leap forward for operations and first aid training.

“The building is a fantastic upgrade from what we already had, it certainly allows us to grow and expand,” he said

“We’re always looking for more volunteers so to have a building in such a prominent space certainly adds to that attraction.

“We managed to provide a really good ambulance service out of our old building but this has certainly taken us into the next century.”

Woodside North West Shelf senior vice president Niall Myles said the North West Shelf Project and Pluto LNG were pleased their investment had delivered a much-needed addition to community infrastructure in Karratha.

“The $2 million investment in the new ambulance sub centre continues a strong partnership between our organisations including volunteering, first aid training and the provision of emergency defibrillators,” he said.

Mr Myles said Woodside had a shared commitment to improving the health and wellbeing of people in the City of Karratha.

St John Ambulance country ambulance general manager Julian Smith said the growth in Karratha had created a need for the new facilities.

“This larger, modern facility will provide us with the ideal stage to expand and evolve our services for the Karratha community,” he said.

“This new centre will help deliver our integrated model of service, where volunteers and career paramedics work side by side and first aid plays an integral part in the chain of survival.”

In 2014/15, Karratha paramedics and ambulance volunteers treated more than 1,400 people and St John trained more than 1,800 people in first aid.