Flashing Lights Newsletter
The St John NT Monthly Newsletter
The St John NT Monthly Newsletter
Welcome again to the hottest July on record that has seen all Territorians engaging in and attending outdoor events right across the Territory including the Camel Cup in Alice Springs and the first 5 days of the Darwin Racing Carnival.
The NT Show Circuit was a hectic time for us all as we manned displays in Alice Springs, Katherine and Darwin and the response from the people attending remains strong for all that we do. Alice Springs was very well attended and our people were busy answering all the questions raised. It was great to see Lizzy Talbot back in the Territory and helping out at all the shows.
On Friday 21 July we were all a part of the opening ceremony for the new St John Ambulance Katherine Ambulance Centre which was a great success with over 150 people attending. The Chief Minister officially opened the Centre with a ribbon cutting ceremony and it was great to have the Local Member, the Mayor and Federal Member for Lingiari all attending. It was amazing the commentary from everyone in attendance about how they had all been lobbying for this centre for so long and to now have this great facility that has been built with future growth in mind was fantastic. The signage for the building is yet to be completed but it will incorporate a reflection of the local traditional owners of the land on which the Centre is built and it will also reflect the good work that St John Ambulance Service provides.
The Paramedic of the Year Awards are approaching quickly and now that nominations have closed we have 40 nominations. The presentation will be held at Parliament House on 16 August and we again thank the Darwin Sunrise Rotary Club for their continued support of this public recognition program for our Paramedic Service and also thanks to the NT Government for again being our hosts for the event.
The Organisational Survey has been completed with the results now collated and broken down into a format that will allow us to have discussions with individual regions on all that is good coming out of the results and all that we can work together to improve the areas where concerns have been raised. The face to face discussions we are having with our people right across the Territory has been very informative and is allowing us to better understand the responses provided and will give us the knowledge to adopt plans to address the areas of greatest concern.
We had one of our own (Justin Blomeley) team up with the NT Fire and Rescue Service team to compete in the Australia Road Rescue Competitions held in Hamilton New Zealand. Justin had a great time and we congratulate him and the team as winners of the best medical team of the competition, runners-up in the trauma challenges and third in the time critical team event.
I trust you enjoy this month’s edition
Ross Coburn
CEO
On Friday 21st July, in a ribbon cutting ceremony, Chief Minister Michael Gunner and Member for Katherine Sandra Nelson officially opened the new Katherine Ambulance Station. A welcome to country was conducted by local Dagoman Land representative May Rosas. The opening saw a large representation from St John Ambulance NT, including the CEO Ross Coburn, who spoke about how pivotal the new centre was to enable St John Ambulance paramedics, volunteers and staff to provide a continued quality of service to the Katherine Community, particularly in times of whole town emergencies such as the Katherine floods. Master of Ceremonies Rhys Dowell (Officer in Charge, Katherine Ambulance Operations) led the opening which was also attended by Member for Lingiari Warren Snowden MP, Katherine Lord Mayor Fay Miller, Members of the Katherine flood mitigation working committee and various other members of the Police, Fire and Emergency services staff.
Construction of the impressive $5.8 million dollar Ambulance Station was awarded to local Northern Territory building company, C&R Contractors and commenced on the 25th July 2016. Funding for the station was allocated as part of the moneys provided by the NT Government to mitigate the impact of flooding within the Katherine Township. The Katherine Ambulance Station is the first building in a new Police, Fire and Emergency Services precinct for Katherine.
Ms Nelson said “The new station offers state-of-the-art facilities, providing paramedics with contemporary rooms for use during their shifts, treatment rooms, training and study facilities, backup power and water in times of emergency and on site mechanical bays”. She also said “the precinct is in an ideal position to support Katherine’s expanding community footprint”.
The ceremony was followed by a morning tea and all attendees were allowed an exclusive tour of the beautiful centre.
Once again, St John Ambulance proudly boasted a strong presence throughout the 2017 NT show circuit. Promotional stands and first aid posts were held in Alice Springs, Tennant Creek, Katherine and in Darwin. It is with great excitement that we can announce that our Darwin stall was awarded 3rd place for the best Community Group stall holder. A ribbon was accepted on behalf of St John Ambulance by Liz Talbot, with the layout and branding of the stall organised by Kathy Allen.
Without some very generous staff and volunteers, the coverage of the show circuit would not be possible. Being visible at such events ensures St John continues to hold a strong brand known to the entire Northern Territory Community and to those travelling through. The Show Circuit provides us with the perfect opportunity to promote our nationally accredited First Aid Training courses, Mechanical Workshop, Community Education Program, and Free First Aid in Schools Program. Volunteer recruitment holds a strong precedence during the show and all funds raised from the sale of First Aid Kits and St John branded products during the duration of the Show Circuit go toward equipment, uniforms and vital training for our volunteers, so that they can continue to provide first aid at functions, events and festivals throughout the Territory.
Special thank you to Commissioner Mark Ferguson and his wife Melanie as they went out of their way (with children in tow) to travel all the way down to Katherine, Tennant Creek and Alice Springs, assisting to make St John’s presence a great success. Also, a sincere thank you to all of the staff and volunteers who selflessly put in their time to assist at first aid posts and PR stands throughout the Territory this Show Season.
Thank you for all entries submitted for the 2017 Paramedic of the Year. Nominations are now closed. We are proud to report that 40 staff have been nominated for this year’s award. The Paramedic of the Year award ceremony will be held on Wednesday 16th of August. Best of luck to all involved.
In June, with full support of the board and following the boards sign off of the 2017/2020 strategic plan our people took place in the St John Ambulance Engagement Survey. Responses were then analysed by Voice Project, a third party research and consulting company, engaged to run the survey. The results of this analysis where presented to the Management Team on the 23 June 2017 and later distributed to all of our people. Overall, 273 of our people completed the Engagement Survey, with response rate results split 74% for employees and 24% for Volunteers. This was described by the Voice Project as ‘commendable’ and was an above average response rate.
The top three performing areas, and the percentage of our people who rated them favourably, were:
The areas for continued improvement were highlighted in the following key areas:
The Engagement Survey results will be used to understand how our people feel about important matters, including performance, culture and relationships within the organisation. The results are critical for future success and to shape a platform for continued improvement. Individual departmental managers will now review the results and develop action plans, which will be communicated in group sessions.
A massive congratulations to Justin Blomeley and the entire NT Fire and Rescue Service team who travelled to Hamilton, New Zealand this month to compete in the Australasian Road Rescue Competition.
The NT team scored a swag of awards:
Justin was quoted as saying “A really good result and not what I expected, it has opened up some really good opportunities for inter-service training with the firies and they have a greater understanding of what we do and vice versa for me and their capabilities”.
St John Ambulance was acknowledged as one of the successful applicants for the first round of the 2017/18 City of Darwin Community Grants Program at a special morning tea held by The Lord Mayor, Katrina Fong Lim on Friday 21st July. A certificate was gratefully accepted by Volunteer and Station Officer, Northern Region Warren Purse. Chief Financial Officer, Ali Malik skillfully shared some words on behalf of St John, showing our appreciation for the grant money. The $5000 received will go towards the purchase of IPads so that our Volunteers can begin documenting Patient Care Records using technology rather than the current manual method.
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