Huge public support for St. John

Wednesday 01 June 2022

Guernsey’s Emergency Ambulance Service has been highly rated by the public - with 96% of respondents saying the service is excellent, very good or good.

The 2022 patients' survey of St. John, which was organised by Island Global Research, was completed by almost 2,000 people. It was the first time that St. John had commissioned an independent third party to conduct the research.

93% of patients also said the professionalism of the ambulance crew was either very good or excellent. The same percentage rated the treatment and advice they received as excellent or very good. 

97% of respondents felt they were involved in the decisions about their care and 99% of patients who were treated and discharged at home were satisfied with the decision. 

The public were slightly less impressed with speed of response. Although 93% said they were happy with response times, only 59% of people rated speed of the response as excellent. 

Pictured: Last year was St. John's busiest ever in terms of calls received. 

The survey also sought feedback on the Non-Emergency Patient Transfer Service (NEPTS), which transports people to and from medical appointments when would otherwise be unable to keep them. 

83% rated the NEPTS as very good or excellent. 81% rated the care and attention they received as very good or excellent. 

Respondents were given the opportunity to provide their own comments on the service, which included: 

"Excellent in care, knowledge, respectful and friendly - what more can we ask for";

"I think you guys do a great job and make an amazing contribution to the community - thank you";

"A brilliant and effective service which should be strongly supported. Payment of the annual subscription removes the worry if the service is needed in an emergency."

Pictured: Responses to the survey were overwhelmingly positive, although some people expressed dissatisfaction with ambulance response times. 

Dean de la Mare, Head of Operations at St. John, welcomed the findings. He said they were a positive reflection of the value and standard of care provided to the community.

"This is particularly encouraging given demand for the ambulance service is at an all-time high and last year was our busiest on record," said Mr de la Mare.

"We place a lot of emphasis on the standard of care we provide, so it is a credit to our dedicated clinicians that the public rate the professionalism from our crews very highly."

Speaking about response times, Mr de la Mare said phone calls are often categorised to prioritise the most serious emergencies, which results in certain calls having longer response times.

"Over 90% of the lower category of calls are responded to within the target time," he said. "Other factors include time of day and the amount of traffic, as well as the distance to the emergency."

Pictured: Dean de la Mare explained how calls for ambulance assistance are prioritised. 

Mr de la Mare said the survey provided a valuable opportunity to understand public views on recent increases in the price of the ambulance subscription service.

"While 82% of people agreed or strongly agreed that the subscription scheme was good value for money, there were some comments about the costs and the changes that were recently introduced to the scheme, which is useful feedback for us," he said.

READ MORE...

Islanders asked for feedback about ambulance service