St John’s Ambulance North Central Headquarters, in Prospect, St Mary, is now better equipped to serve more people within their geographic service area.
These two ambulances are from a group of six donated to St John’s Jamaica by the Embassy of Japan. The embassy responded to the needs of the organization that had reached out to them.
The six completely furnished vehicles were handed over to St John’s Jamaica in January of last year.
With these two additional ambulances, St John’s Ambulance North Central now has a total of three emergency vehicles to serve the St Ann and St Mary Region.
When the North Coast Times visited the headquarters last Monday, August 21, staff members were engaged in one of their routine training sessions. These sessions are held in order to keep members of staff up to par with new developments in emergency care and medicine to enable them to function effectively.
Monday’s training was led by volunteer response paramedic, in Austria, David Humber.
Chairman of the St John’s Ambulance North Central, Pixley Irons, told The Times, that plans are being put in place with the aid of these two new ambulances, to implement a 24-hour emergency service.
St John’s Ambulance provides first aid training, ambulance service for hospital transfers and for individual emergencies. It is also available to provide emergency service at social, entertainment and other public events. As a non-profit organization, its services tend to cost less than private providers as St John’s also benefits from volunteers.
Mr Irons added that come September, St John’s will begin to provide training for persons who are interested in learning first aid. He urged persons who are interested to contact the headquarters at (876) 994-1126 or send an email to stjohnnorthcentral37@gmail.com.
Executive director of St John’s Ambulance Jamaica, Alison Christie-Binger, says that there was a need for the ambulances and that several persons have been upgraded through training at the St John’s Ambulance.
She also expressed her appreciation for the newly donated units.
