Sep 04 A ride along opportunity with St John's and thoughts on why we need to support such organisations.

Tony Bowater and Jock Stewart getting ready for the night shift. Click to enlarge.

St John's is one of those organisations you really don't wish to have to deal with, but when the need arises you are so glad to have them turn up.
They have been a backbone of our community in times of need since 1885, when lives were vastly different to how they are now, but the reality is still very much the same.
When an accident happens and someone is injured who do you call?

What most people do not realise is that the modern Order of St John's is a charitable organisation, relying on the goodwill of the community to support it. In today's fast paced, hectic and financially complex world this means charities such as St John's have to work really hard to make some noise and attract sponsorship and funding.
As you can imagine the business of running a comprehensive emergency response capacity is hugely expensive.

At the end of August we joined some of the other business leaders for the First Response Challenge briefing. St John had invited this group of eight together to challenge them to ride along one by one on an average night shift with one of their First Response team, to see first hand what the organisation did for our community.
We quickly discovered one of the major complexities faced by the local St John is that our Nelson / Tasman region is the largest geographical one in the country, and the distances that need to be covered by a small team are vast. What the St John crew find when they turn up to a callout also varies a large degree as they are often the first response on the scene of many incidents, accidents and medical emergencies. Not put off by this the business leaders set about getting up to speed with what was required of them as "official observers" in a sometimes emotionally charged situation.

Tony Bowater and the complexities of working with body fluids.

For anyone that knows Tony first hand they will know that he is not that good with people's blood, or needles. He is noticably absent on the Flu Jab day!
Once invited though he did the honourable thing and fronted up as he felt that this challenge was far too important to hide from. His fear of seeing blood and guts was quickly put to rest with the encouragement to improve their KPI's in response time due to the observer becoming the patient and the responding team having a zero factor response time!

Tony Bowater arriving at St John's ahead of his first response shift. Click to enlarge.

This year the 8 business leaders will ride along as a part of the St John's First Response Challenge. The aim is to raise the profile of the investment that St John's has in our community and bring some of the "behind the scenes" activities out in the public arena with the help and support of local business leaders sharing their real world experiences out on an actual shift. This is both a fundraising challenge and the chance to raise awareness of the need for the community to get behind annual St John's Appeals, and to remember them when a community support opportunity arises.

It is not until you get in amongst it do you realise the high level of care that they are able to provide "on the fly" Whilst the organisation relies on an enormous pool of volunteers, those turning up to situations, accidents and emergencies are highly trained medical professionals with a plethora of high tech medical emergency and diagnostic equipment. This was not lost on Tony in the moments after loading the first response vehicle and heading out on the shift. Check out the video by clicking the play button to open the player.

Those that are embarking on this most admirable task have a bit of additional work ahead of them.
Last year the First Response Challenge raised a massive $15,000 plus for the charity, which is great, but a drop in the bucket of the $300,000 budgeted shortfall needed for this financial year. Aside for the capacity to action a big fundraising drive the aim of engaging with organisations such as Bowaters is to activate networks at the same time and raise awareness as to why we all collective need to support St Johns.

The first batch of First Response Challengers with some of the team from St Johns: Matt Wilkinson, Wayne Mackey, Matt Stringer, Tony Bowater, Jock Stewart, Mike Ure and Daniel Kitto

So how did Tony's shift go? Did he become the patient?
Click on the play button to activate the video player.

So why do we collectively need to get behind this? St John's are playing an increasingly vital role in our community as a first response emergency healthcare provider. Now more than ever we are relying on them to deliver primary life saving actions in transit rather than them acting as rapid courier drivers.

Our region is special because of the size and social demographics at play. In Nelson Bays the population has increased by 8% since the previous census. We have one of the highest percentages of people over 65 in New Zealand.

The Ambulance workload has increased every year for past 5 years, and this has identified the need for additional services to be added as population shifts and grows. Next on the list is a St John's Station in Stoke.

The Bowater Motor Group are very focused on supporting the community. We have been doing this for near on 70 years now and have come to the conclusion that the more we support the community, the more the community supports us by using our companies to buy and service their vehicles. This symbiotic relationship benefits everyone and creates a healthy community spirit that thrives within all that we do, and those that work for us and with us.

A huge thankyou to St John Nelson for the opportunity, we will post links on this page when the fundraising component of the First Response Challenge is organised.