Prime Minister Opens New Charity Facility

Prime Minister Opens New Charity Facility

A new St John facility for Auckland’s West, Helensville Ambulance Station at 7 Rata Street, was officially opened by the Prime Minister the Honourable John Key, MP on Friday 4th June at 1.30pm.

John Old, 94 helped the Prime Minister cut the ribbon at the new St John Helensville Ambulance Station. Mr Old was present when the former Helensville station was officially opened for the first time on Thursday 29th May 1969. He was then the local bank manager and Lions Club representative and was instrumental in fundraising for the station and first ambulance.

The Helensville and Kumeu St John Youth Divisions formed a joint Guard of Honour for the Prime Minister at the opening.

The Helensville Community has helped St John raise the $650,000 needed to fund this new ambulance station. St John is one of the country’s larger charitable organisations and is the primary provider of ambulance, emergency care and community care services. St John relies heavily on volunteers and the ongoing financial support of the public to provide these services.

This station opens during an auspicious year for St John. In 2010 St John celebrates a landmark anniversary – 125 years of serving New Zealanders and this month (June 20-27) is the flash a light for St John Appeal and awareness campaign to help the station’s volunteer and paid ambulance officers and their colleagues around the country continue their work in the community.

Volunteers are a valuable asset to the Helensville community and St John. These 13 volunteers are the second crew member on ambulances. They also work right in the heart of community events, providing medical cover at local street festivals and parades. Station manager John Redman began his own St John career as a volunteer ambulance officer in West Auckland in 1995 and went fulltime in 1999.

In this rural community people wear more than one hat and that is true for upskilled paramedic Mark Scotter. He lives at Shelley Beach where he trains the first response group. Plus he is a volunteer with the group .That’s when he’s not working as a paramedic at Helensville Station.

St John and local first response and co-response groups in the district work closely together and support each other, as do all the emergency services.
First Response Group volunteers give their time generously in other nearby communities at Shelley Beach, Kaukapakapa, Ahuroa and at Muriwai, providing medical support in an emergency until the Helensville ambulance arrives. Police and St John have together dealt with many tragedies in their community, often responding to people they know personally. They support each other through difficult times. St John has two agreements with the New Zealand Service where Fire will co-respond with – or in advance of – St John ambulance to accident or medical emergencies where it will make a difference to patient outcomes.

Helensville Station History
The need for a dedicated ambulance service in Helensville first became apparent after the then Mayor died in a railway crossing accident.
One of the first callouts from the new station was to Muriwai during the toheroa season. Two cars collided on the beach leaving seven people injured. Extra ambulances were called in to cope with the numbers.
The first ambulance crew was Peter O’Reilly and Ian Bristow. Ian’s driving skills included coaxing the Dodge A20 ambulance as fast as she could go. And he drew a map marking the quicksand on Muriwai beach so the pair would know what locations to avoid in the ambulance.
Peter always knew how to track down the local doctor – Doc Liddell was famous for putting a towel on the letterbox of any home he doing a housecall to.
In 1992, Helensville became the first rural station in the greater Auckland area to appoint a woman ambulance officer when Patsy Carlyle joined the team.
In 2008, the current team leader John Redman was appointed to Helensville, heading a team of three other fulltime ambulance officers

Some Helensville Station Statistics:

Of the 47 stations in St John’s Northern Region, seven are in Auckland City and 22 are in the greater Auckland area, from Helensville here in the West, to Wellsford in the North and Pukekohe in the South.

Number of emergency incidents attended:
2007 753
2008 764
2009 871
2010 (Jan - Apr) 299

Number of Patients Treated and Transported by ambulance:
2007 755
2008 755
2009 882
2010 (Jan - Apr) 311

Number of Kilometers Travelled:
2007 66,123
2008 70,879
2009 77,032
2010 (Jan - Apr) 24,892

Number of Staff / Volunteers:
FTE Volunteer
2007 0 3
2008 4 11
2009 4 13
2010 (Jan - Apr) 4 13

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