St John WA ranked top state in national leader board for speedy emergency responses

• New figures show St John WA delivered the quickest response to emergency Priority 1 cases of any Australian state in 2020-21,
• The annual Productivity Commission Report on Government Services 2022 compares the performance of ambulance services around Australia,
• St John WA has consistently outperformed peer services in relation to cost-to-taxpayers, patient satisfaction and performance measures.

St John WA has today been identified as having the most rapid response to Priority 1 patients of any Australian state, the 2022 Productivity Commission Report on Government Services has revealed.

In FY21, half of all responding St John WA ambulances arrived at the scene of a Code 1 emergency in 9.4 minutes, ranking it the quickest response of any Australian ambulance state service outside the ACT.

St John WA covers the largest area of any single ambulance service in the world, with 2,525,500 square kilometres or 33 per cent of the total landmass of Australia. It has more response locations per head capita than anywhere on mainland Australia.

St John WA Executive Director of Ambulance Operations, Deon Brink, said the annual Government Services report provides a vital insight into how St John WA is performing in comparison to the rest of Australia.

“As the state’s ambulance service, we hold ourselves accountable to deliver the best possible outcomes for our patients and our Western Australian community. It is clear that all services experienced significant pressures on their systems the past 2 years, and we are proud that our results top the list” Mr Brink said.

“Like all ambulance services across Australia, our frontline has been experiencing unprecedented demand. This outcome is a tribute to our people who work hard every day to help Western Australians when they are facing an emergency.”

Western Australians were also more satisfied with the performance of St John than in relation to phone answer time and ambulance arrival time than callers in any other state, resulting in an overall satisfaction of 97 per cent – behind only the ACT and Northern Territory.

Today’s Report on Government Services also revealed:

• St John WA continued to deliver the lowest cost-per-person to taxpayers ambulance service in Australia at $119.79 per person which is below the $171 per person national average,
• The WA workforce is slightly older than average with fewer staff aged under 50 than other states,
• 83.3 per cent of triple zero (000) calls were answered in under 10 seconds in Western Australia,
• There was a 6.17 per cent increase in responses from St John WA in FY21, of which 3.06 per cent were classified as emergencies
• St John’s ambulance service transported 335,707 Western Australian patients in FY21.