St John NT: Once best in the nation at answering triple-0 calls quickly, service slides to worst

Whereas once no ambulance service in Australia answered triple-0 calls more swiftly, St John NT now trails the rest of the nation. A 52 per cent workload increase is to blame, the organisation says.

Where once St John NT was Australia’s most responsive ambulance service when it came to answering triple-0 calls directed its way, it is now the least responsive. Picture: Katrina Bridgeford.

Whereas once no ambulance service in Australia answered triple-0 calls directed to it more swiftly, St John NT now trails the rest of the federation.

The worrying trend is detailed in the Productivity Commission’s Report on Government Services 2024.

According to the report, in 2022–23, St John NT operators only answered 86.6 per cent of triple-0 calls, directed to it from the emergency services telecommunication system, within 10 seconds.

It is the worst result in Australia, with the ambulance service of the closest jurisdiction, New South Wales, answering 91 per cent of its triple-0 calls within 10 seconds.

Across Australia, 93.4 per cent of triple-0 calls placed to ambulance services are answered within 10 seconds.

According to figures provided by St John NT, only seven per cent of triple-0 calls in 2022–23 took longer than 20 seconds to answer, while 73 per cent were answered within five seconds.

The Northern Territory Government contracts St John NT to answer 60 per cent of calls within 10 seconds.

St John NT’s 2022–23 result is a far cry from 2017–18 and 2018–19, when it responded to 97.7 per cent of calls within 10 seconds and led the federation in responsiveness.

Andrew Thomas, St John NT’s director of ambulance services, said the decline was due to an “unprecedented workload increase” within the organisation’s emergency communication centre.

According to Mr Thomas, in the Past five years, there had been a 52 per cent increase in the number of triple-0 calls placed to St John NT, from 52,700 to 80,400 calls per annum.

St John Ambulance NT Director Ambulance Services, Andrew Thomas. Picture: Liam Mendes / The Australian

“This increased call volume resulted in increased ambulance responses from 55,272 to 74,177, a 34 per cent increase in workload,” Mr Thomas said.

“The NT also has the highest level of responses and incidents per 1000 people, and almost the highest level of patients, second to QLD.

“As a small service, St John NT is responding year-on-year to an increasing number of patients.

“The rate of 241.1 incidents per 1000 people in the NT is significantly higher than the national average of 161.7.

“This response rate per 100,000 population demonstrates that health services in the Northern Territory are dealing with a demographic of people who have higher health needs than other states or territories.

“The Northern Territory is also characterised as having higher risk factors with situations which require emergency medical assistance, such as car accidents, drug and alcohol related harm and patients with high acuity conditions and complex comorbidities.”

Earlier this month, it was reported St John NT was the only ambulance service in Australia where overall funding declined in 2022–23, led by a reduction in government funding of $1.3m.

The reduction in government funding led to St John NT posting a budget deficit of $1.8m, compared to a $1.2m surplus the year prior.

Despite having less cash to perform its vital duties, St John transported 4553 more patients in 2022–23 compared to the year prior (38,544).

Mr Thomas previously told the NT News his organisation was lobbying the Territory government for a more sustainable funding model.

The bullet point summary was created with the assistance of AI technology (PaLM2) then edited and approved for publication by an editor.