St John NT praised in 2024 patient survey

The Territory’s ambulance service has been praised for a near perfect patient performance. Read the details.

St John NT patients were overwhelmingly satisfied with the service. Picture: Che Chorley

Patient satisfaction with the Territory’s ambulance service has recorded near perfect results for the second consecutive year.

In 2024, patients’ overall satisfaction with the Territory’s ambulance provider St John NT was 99 per cent — the equal highest across Australia.

The near-perfect score was two points above the Australian average of 97 per cent.

St John NT’s emergency call operators were also rated “helpful and reassuring”, with 96 per cent of responders praising their assistance.

St John Ambulance NT is the Territory’s ambulance provider. Picture: Supplied

The Northern Territory’s paramedics’ care was also rated the highest in the nation, with 93 per cent of respondents describing it as “very good”, above the national average of 90 per cent.

The annual patient survey is administered by the Council of Ambulance Authorities, with responses gathered across all Australian jurisdictions and New Zealand and Papua New Guinea.

Chief executive of the ambulance service, Andrew Tombs, said the survey feedback helped his organisation to improve patient experience.

“This feedback is extremely important to us, in 2023/24 St John NT answered over 91,000 triple-0 (000) calls and transported over 45,000 patients to hospital,” Mr Tombs said.

Chief executive Andrew Tombs encouraged people to take the survey. Picture: Supplied

“Understanding our patients’ experience in receiving this service helps us gain valuable insight and highlights how patients’ expectations about the service are met or if there are any areas in our service which require special attention and/or improvement.

“All survey recipients have been randomly selected from across the Territory, the survey only takes 10 minutes and can be completed online or on the hard copy questionnaire provided.”

One area the Territory did not outperform in was ambulance response time.

Paramedics’ care was rated highly in the annual survey. Picture: Che Chorley

Across the nation, 11 per cent of respondents rated their ambulance service as slower than expected.

NT had the highest response of 15 per cent.

Territorians have until June 6 to provide confidential patient feedback if they have used St John NT’s ambulance service.

“I urge all people who receive the survey to please complete it, the safety of our patients and delivery of quality care is our top priority,” Mr Tombs said.

To see the full results go to https://www.stjohnnt.org.au/ambulance-services/patient-experience-survey