Wednesday, 12th September

St John Ambulance hopes it can eat into its $15 million a year loss by not sending ambulances to non-urgent 111 calls. St John's annual operating loss has risen from $8 million five years ago, with an increasing number of elderly people needing transport producing a 4.5 per cent rise in demand. It's forced St John's to review its services and one of the plans is to direct non-urgent calls to a GP or other health care, or to send a staff member in a car and not an ambulance.

Photo by SNPA Sep 10, 2012