St John WA emergency ambulance response fastest in the nation: Productivity Commission

• St John WA reported the quickest metropolitan ambulance services Priority 1 response times at 9.6 minutes, and 9.9 minutes statewide in FY23-24.
• SJWA Triple Zero (000) call takers answer 97.3 per cent of calls under 10 seconds – the best result for the WA in the past decade.
• SJWA received the highest number of calls, emergency incidents and total patients in a decade.

St John WA achieved the quickest median response time of all the ambulance services across Australian capital cities at 9.6 minutes, according to the latest Report on Government Services.

SJWA returned to a first place ranking for metropolitan ambulance services response times for the first time in four years. Even statewide, Western Australia had the fastest median response time of 9.9 minutes in line with Tasmania.

The Report on Government Services is published Productivity Commission each year and provides information on the equity, effectiveness and efficiency of government services in Australia.

SJWA’s Triple Zero (000) call takers had the best result for the state in the past decade, with highest proportions of calls answered in 10 seconds or less at 97.3 per cent, only behind Victoria (97.7 per cent) and well ahead of the national median (94.9 per cent).

About 97 per cent of WA patients surveyed were very satisfied or satisfied with SJWA in line with the national median, with WA leading the nation in the phone answer time and ambulance arrivals time “being quicker than [patients] thought it would be”.

SJWA received the highest number of calls in the state for a decade at more than 3 million, with 96 per cent of patients rating the assistance provided by call takers as helpful – the highest in the nation.

In WA, the number of emergency incidents and total patients rose for the 10th straight year.

The attrition rate for SJWA’s operational workforce significantly dropped from 8.9 per cent last year to 5 per cent this year, with more registered paramedics operating in WA than in the past four years.

WA also has 1.9 more response locations per 100,000 people compared to the national average, which is made possible over the largest land mass of any ambulance jurisdiction due to volunteers.

SJWA Chief Emergency Officer Brendon Brodie-Hall hailed the findings as the result of all the hard work of team members working together to meet the communities’ expectations of their ambulance service.

“These results are a credit to the incredible team members across the St John WA network who work tirelessly to deliver a world class ambulance service to the WA community,” Mr Brodie-Hall said.

Group CEO Kevin Brown agreed, welcoming the findings.

“I couldn’t be prouder of our people on the frontline and in our State Control Centre – they do an incredible job getting information quickly and calmly from people during the most stressful time in their lives to ensure they deliver the best patient care possible,” Mr Brown said.

“And I thank those who co-ordinate, innovate and transform the service to respond appropriately to patients needs while ensuring in a life-threatening emergency we have the resources to deploy rapidly.”