Papua New Guinea ambulance service given no money in budget

Papua New Guinea’s main ambulance service – St John Ambulance – has been allocated no money in the government’s budget for 2021.

St John Ambulance runs a fleet in the capital, Port Moresby, and across provincial centres. For much of the country it is the only ambulance service.

On a budget already reduced by more than two-thirds, St John has been forced to cut the number of ambulances operating in and around Port Moresby and to run fewer shifts. There are concerns the service could shut down over Christmas. Management has even considered selling some of its ambulances to keep going.

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The St John budget was K10m (US$2.8m) in 2019 but this was slashed in 2020 to just K3m – only K1m of which has been received by the service.

When the already-controversial PNG budget for 2021 was passed by parliament in November – without the opposition present – a line allocated zero kina to St John.

“We are beyond disappointed that [an] oversight resulted in public ambulance service funding being entirely left out from the government’s 2021 budget and are still determining how we will continue any of our lifesaving services to the public,” St John said in a statement.

The PNG treasury department said the funding cut was an oversight – the budget was hastily passed with the government fearing a court injunction from the opposition – but despite promises no funding has been restored.

The chair of the National St John Council, Dame Jean Kekedo, has asked the prime minister, James Marape, to immediately restore the service’s budget, saying that without it more than 100 frontline ambulance staff will be laid off or lose shifts over Christmas.

“Reducing services isn’t taken lightly, the financial position of St John is a huge concern, St John cannot continue to borrow money to cover costs to provide services for and on behalf of the government.”

St John has provided an ambulance service in PNG for more than six decades. It runs 25 ambulances in Port Moresby, Kokopo, Central province, Morobe, Simbu and Madang provinces. It also worked with Tropicai and Manolos aviation providing air ambulance services across the archipelago.

Despite a longstanding agreement with the PNG government to provide the service, St John has had to suspend operations previously. In 2015 its fleet ran out of fuel because the government had not paid it.

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Most of PNG’s population of more than eight million live in remote and hard-to-access areas. Primary healthcare in rural and mountainous villages is limited, and tertiary healthcare nonexistent, making ambulances vital in saving lives.

“It is necessary,” said Dr Sam Yockopua, secretary of the National Doctors Association, “and it is proven to significantly reduce mothers and babies dying because they are unable to access the right care – [currently] that is around 2,000 women and 2,000 babies that our people lose every year.

“We, as doctors know first-hand the importance of proper pre-hospital care that only St John can provide in Papua New Guinea.”