Volunteer team fills gap left by St John | Wairarapa News | Local News in Wairarapa

A stop-gap volunteer ambulance team will help cover Martinborough and Featherston after the Wairarapa District Health Board cut its contract with St John.
The announcement was made at the weekend that a first response ambulance service will cover the towns on top of a 24-hour roster run by the Wairarapa District Health Board-operated Wairarapa Ambulance Service.
The service runs seven ambulances that include three fully-crewed vehicles covering the region through the night.
More than 200 residents from Martinborough and surrounding coastal areas last month lobbied to retain an emergency vehicle operated by Martinborough Ambulance Trust and staffed by St John volunteers.
Since Thursday a 24-hour service has run from a station in Greytown.
The group managing the transition to new after-hours ambulance service arrangements in southern Wairarapa ''identified an opportunity'' for a first-response unit to operate in the Martinborough and Featherston areas, spokeswoman Lisa Sims said.
Through a memorandum of understanding between St John and the Wairarapa DHB, local St John volunteers will provide an initial response to emergencies in the Featherston and Martinborough districts as an additional service
As an interim arrangement until September 1, Ms Sims said, the first-response unit will operate from 6.00pm to 6.00am daily, and at other times as responding crews might be available.
''It will not transport patients unless requested to do so by the Wairarapa DHB or the Emergency Ambulance Communications Centre,'' she said.
Wairarapa DHB announced in May it would not renew its contract with St John for after-hours cover in southern Wairarapa.
The decision to axe the contract came after Ministry of Health funding was increased for additional full-time paramedics and the introduction of a 24-hour paramedic to cover from the DHB Greytown ambulance station late last year, Ms Sims said.
St John will be responsible for the first-response units and will meet the costs of recruiting, training, and equipment, supported by local St John area committees and community trusts.
The memorandum of understanding recognises the cooperative relationship between the Wairarapa District Health Board, which provides contracted emergency ambulance services, and St John in southern Wairarapa, she said.
''The future shape of the first- response unit will be developed through the transition group, with broader involvement of the southern Wairarapa community.''
''The DHB is supportive of the community's initiative and St John's willingness to provide the additional service to our own,'' says Wairarapa DHB chief executive Tracey Adamson.
''Our discussions with St John and community members have centred on working together for the best interests of patients. We will continue to work with the volunteer Fire Service and rescue helicopter in remote areas, as happens throughout the country,'' Ms Adamson said.''
''St John and the Wairarapa DHB will continue to work together on training and cooperating in areas where it will mutually benefit both parties and patients.''
Ms Adamson said the DHB was committed to continuing its own ambulance service, which attends more than 4500 callouts a year, travels an average of 220,000km a year, and covers an area from Mount Bruce to Ocean Beach.
St John regional operations manager Grant Pennycook supports the move.
''We believe that this is a sensible arrangement for the southern Wairarapa and will begin work immediately to engage St John members who had been expecting to relinquish their rosters,'' he said.
''St John believes that there will be a positive response from members to the announcement of this arrangement.''
He said St John would continue to provide its range of other services and community programmes to Wairarapa.
These include first-aid training, clinical care at events, medical alarms, a Caring Caller Community Service and St John Youth.