Ambulance

Focus on Evolutionary Change within St John New Zealand
Refreshing Our Values to Benefit
Our Patients and Our People
By Peter Bradley, CBE, CEO of St. John, New Zealand.
Peter Bradley, CBE is known globally across EMS as the author of the “Bradley Report,” the groundbreaking
2005 strategic review of NHS ambulance services in England, Taking Healthcare to the Patient,
which was the catalyst for a major transformation in UK ambulance services. After a highly-successful
decade-plus tenure as CEO of London Ambulance Service (LAS), Peter returned to New Zealand in 2012
to take on the challenging role of CEO of St John New Zealand at a time of organisational change and
development. The last three years have seen improvements in clinical and operational service delivery at
SJNZ but, as Peter explains below, the job isn’t finished and nobody at SJNZ, least of all himself, is resting
on their laurels.
It’s been an interesting transition, moving
from CEO of the London Ambulance
Service to CEO of the main ambulance
service in New Zealand (NZ) – St John. I
have been back here three-and-a-half years
having left NZ for London in 1996.
St John is a worldwide organisation
operating in many countries, but we are
one of only three that run the frontline
emergency ambulance service – the other
two are both in Australia (Western Australia
and Northern Territory).
Spring 2016 | Ambulancetoday
Our five year strategy – which we have
called the ‘Bigger Picture’ (a version of
which appeared in a recent edition of this
magazine) has five ambitions over five years
and these are shown below. Most of these
would align well with other ambulance
services, however our fifth – ‘Partner of
Choice’ focuses on our partners and reflects
the much wider role that St John plays
beyond running an ambulance service.
- Right care right time
- Local pathways
- Quality care
- People prepared for change
- Partner of choice
In terms of our ambulance service, I will start
by outlining what is similar to the UK: well
clearly the types of patients we see are the
same, although we do get more traumarelated
calls. We have similar ambulances,
uniforms, kit and clinical guidelines. We
have five frontline ambulance roles, starting
with First Responder, then Emergency
Medical Assistant (EMA), Emergency
Medical Technician, Paramedic and finally
Intensive Care Paramedic (ICP). All but First
Responder and EMA must have an Authority
to Practice (ATP), undertake annual refresher
training and be exposed to a specific number
of patient contacts each year to maintain
their ATP. Our Medical Director has overall
responsibility for approving ATP and the
Clinical Procedures and Guidelines.
Paramedics are not a registered health
profession in NZ, however it is likely that this
will happen over the next 18 to 24 months.
Biography:
Peter Bradley, CBE,
CEO of St. John, New Zealand
Peter was a paramedic
in Auckland in the early
stages of his career, and
became Regional Director of
Ambulance Services for St
John New Zealand’s Northern
Region before taking time
out in 1995 to complete an MBA at Otago
University. In 1996 he joined LAS as Director
of Operations, and served as Chief Executive
of the LAS from 2000 until his return to New
Zealand.
During his time in the UK, Peter was also the
Chairman of the Association of Ambulance
Chief Executives (AACE), and National
Director of Ambulance Services for the
Department of Health in England. He led the
strategic review of NHS ambulance services in
England, Taking Healthcare to the Patient, which
was the catalyst for a major transformation in
UK ambulance services.
Winter 2014 | Ambulancetoday3 41