St John Ambulance
Most people know St John Ambulance as the health and first aid charity, that keeps thousands of people safe at hundreds of events every week – from football matches and pop concerts to local fetes.
However, they may not know that they are also a leading ambulance service provider in England, offering emergency and non-emergency ambulance services. St John Ambulance Operations have a wealth of experience in providing ambulance services across the NHS to both the hospital and ambulance sectors.
St John Ambulance transports over 70,000 patients a year through specialist services including: caring for bariatric patients; neonatal transfer patients; paediatric patients and their parents during transfers; palliative care and end of life patients on their final journeys, GP urgent admissions to hospital and dedicated discharge journeys. They offer national coverage, with regional knowledge, supported by our fleet of almost 200 ambulances.
St John Ambulance has a bold vision to transform care provided in local communities over the next decade. Its ambition is to help transform out-of-hospital care, having a positive impact on the people they treat, the communities they serve, and their own St John people.
To help the organisation achieve this vision, chief operating officer Richard Lee has recently joined St John., Prior to this, he was director of operations for the Welsh Ambulance Service (WAST) and has spent 25 years in the NHS ambulance sector. He is also a registered paramedic and continues to practice with St John.
Richard Lee says:
“St John Ambulance delivers first class care to thousands of patients ever year across the country both through our ambulance services and our cover at events. Our St John people are the difference in the communities that they serve. As we develop our services during 2019 and beyond, we will be continuing to modernise our fleet and equipment as well as our specialist capabilities such as cycle responders”.
Working for St John Ambulance
St John Ambulance invests heavily in its people, through a range of training and development opportunities. As a leader in Ambulance Services, Event Medicine, First Aid and Mental Health First Aid training, St John Ambulance also offers a suite of wellbeing resources to its employees and volunteers including health and wellbeing advice, financial guidance and a wide range of employee discounts. The organisation is driven by its values of ‘HEART’: Humanity, Excellence, Accountability, Responsiveness and Teamwork and these are at the core of its culture.
Paramedic Offer
Due to St John’s range of services, it is in a unique position to offer something new to the paramedic community. St John is now offering a new type of paramedic role to work from a job plan, rather than a standard rota. This job plan will incorporate three key areas.
• Ambulance duties – Paramedics will still work closely with the NHS and provide a high-quality of patient care as they do now whilst crewing a St John ambulance.
• Events – St John Ambulance provides first aid and pre-hospital care at thousands of events every month; more and more events require medical support from paramedics. As part of your job plan, you will be able to attend events such as concerts, sporting events and major events across the England.
• Education –. Paramedics will spend time delivering clinical education to our Ambulance Crew and 18,000 first aid volunteers
• In addition to this, paramedics will be provided with funding and study leave to complete a further relevant qualification such as a degree or masters in a relevant subject.
St John Ambulance is currently recruiting for paramedics across the country, however, if you are not a paramedic and interested in starting an exciting new career. Visit sja.org.uk/ambulancejobs to learn more about becoming an ambulance crew team member or sja.org.uk/jobs using your skills to become a first aid trainer for St John Ambulance.