❓ The Minister for Health addresses concerns about the St John Ambulance contract, citing COVID-19 and the need for reforms in regional services and mental health transport as reasons for a two-year extension. They highlight the new CEO's potential for positive change and emphasize a thorough negotiation process.
AnsweredQoN 339Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH — ST JOHN AMBULANCE
CONTRACT
339. Mr Z.R.F. KIRKUP to the Minister for Health:
I refer to the minister's
media statement of 26 June 2018 regarding a two-year contract extension for St John
Ambulance WA, in which he promised to deliver improved patient outcomes. Has
the government signed a new ambulance
contract that reflects better outcomes for patients or is it true that he has
done nothing over the last two years and as a result just unfairly
rolled over the existing contact for our vital ambulance services in Western Australia?
CONTRACT
339. Mr Z.R.F. KIRKUP to the Minister for Health:
I refer to the minister's
media statement of 26 June 2018 regarding a two-year contract extension for St John
Ambulance WA, in which he promised to deliver improved patient outcomes. Has
the government signed a new ambulance
contract that reflects better outcomes for patients or is it true that he has
done nothing over the last two years and as a result just unfairly
rolled over the existing contact for our vital ambulance services in Western Australia?
AnswerView source ↗
I thank the member for the question;
it is an important one. St John Ambulance provides a vital service to the Western
Australian community, making sure that Western Australians can get to hospital
within a speedy and clinically safe period of time, but it also plays other
roles in primary care at events and so on. It is important we ensure that the
contract between the Western Australian government and St John Ambulance meets
the need of a rapidly changing community and
health setting. Indeed, at the moment our health setting is changing more
rapidly than we could possibly imagine. The COVID-19 pandemic represents
a significant risk with changes over the past few months and changes coming in
the next 12 months. From that perspective of a changing landscape, and the
point of view of resources involved in renegotiating the contract, we proposed
to St John Ambulance that we do a one-year extension to make sure that we can
accommodate all the changes coming forward. St John came back to us and said, ''Can
we make this a two-year extension?'', and we said yes. We think that is
a fair thing. The other aspect of it is ultimately we need to make sure that
the St John Ambulance contract meets the needs of a modern health landscape.
One of the things we are particularly concerned about is the way that ambulance
services are provided in regional and country communities. We put far too much
pressure on our volunteers, both with patient evacuation
from sites and patient transport between smaller communities and larger
hospitals. From that perspective , we are trying to look at some reforms
in the contract so that WA country patients have much better clinical oversight
and a much better service. We are also looking at other aspects of the
contract, in particular the transport of mental health patients between
hospitals. Because of the demand on St John Ambulance, sometimes we are not
getting a timely response to requests for mental health patients, so we have
looked at some reforms to that.
Michelle Fyfe has recently been
appointed as the chief executive officer of St John Ambulance. She is doing an
outstanding job. She was a career police officer with an outstanding career in
the WA Police Force, and is now the CEO of St John Ambulance. She is bringing
fresh thinking, new approaches and a great deal of quality leadership to the
organisation. I am very excited about what the Department of Health in partnership
with St John Ambulance can achieve, but we will not rush the contract. It is a very
big one, and at the request of St John Ambulance with the mutual agreement of
both parties, we decided to extend it by another two years so that it has some
financial certainty going forward. We will certainly use the next 12 months to
finalise the negotiations.
it is an important one. St John Ambulance provides a vital service to the Western
Australian community, making sure that Western Australians can get to hospital
within a speedy and clinically safe period of time, but it also plays other
roles in primary care at events and so on. It is important we ensure that the
contract between the Western Australian government and St John Ambulance meets
the need of a rapidly changing community and
health setting. Indeed, at the moment our health setting is changing more
rapidly than we could possibly imagine. The COVID-19 pandemic represents
a significant risk with changes over the past few months and changes coming in
the next 12 months. From that perspective of a changing landscape, and the
point of view of resources involved in renegotiating the contract, we proposed
to St John Ambulance that we do a one-year extension to make sure that we can
accommodate all the changes coming forward. St John came back to us and said, ''Can
we make this a two-year extension?'', and we said yes. We think that is
a fair thing. The other aspect of it is ultimately we need to make sure that
the St John Ambulance contract meets the needs of a modern health landscape.
One of the things we are particularly concerned about is the way that ambulance
services are provided in regional and country communities. We put far too much
pressure on our volunteers, both with patient evacuation
from sites and patient transport between smaller communities and larger
hospitals. From that perspective , we are trying to look at some reforms
in the contract so that WA country patients have much better clinical oversight
and a much better service. We are also looking at other aspects of the
contract, in particular the transport of mental health patients between
hospitals. Because of the demand on St John Ambulance, sometimes we are not
getting a timely response to requests for mental health patients, so we have
looked at some reforms to that.
Michelle Fyfe has recently been
appointed as the chief executive officer of St John Ambulance. She is doing an
outstanding job. She was a career police officer with an outstanding career in
the WA Police Force, and is now the CEO of St John Ambulance. She is bringing
fresh thinking, new approaches and a great deal of quality leadership to the
organisation. I am very excited about what the Department of Health in partnership
with St John Ambulance can achieve, but we will not rush the contract. It is a very
big one, and at the request of St John Ambulance with the mutual agreement of
both parties, we decided to extend it by another two years so that it has some
financial certainty going forward. We will certainly use the next 12 months to
finalise the negotiations.
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