Your donation will help to ensure vital help and support from Wellington Free Ambulance remains free of charge.
You can also donate by phoning 0508 932 373 or by emailing donate@wfa.org.nz
"I see it as an honour to go into someone’s home when they're stressed and are at their wits' end to know what to do.”
Meet Isaac, one of the 221 frontline Wellington Free Ambulance paramedics who work in a variety of roles to provide emergency care to our communities when it’s needed most.
Isaac was just 17 and straight out of high school when he decided to become a paramedic. 13 years on, Isaac has many roles within the Wellington Free team. He’s a frontline paramedic, relief shift manager, preceptor (guiding and supervising newly graduated paramedics), and Pasifika Heartbeat tutor (providing CPR training, a life-saving technique used when someone’s heart stops beating). He’s also a clinical paramedic advisor working in the clinical hub at the Wellington Free Ambulance Clinical Communications Centre in Thorndon.
Right now, we urgently need your support to ensure our team of highly skilled and experienced paramedics, like Isaac, can continue providing lifesaving and changing care to our community.
Isaac and the team of experts in our clinical hub provide immediate clinical care over the phone, which has benefits for our community and patients, wider healthcare system, and the Wellington Free team. Like Isaac explains in this example involving a family who called 111 when their young baby had choked:
“The parents had been able to clear their baby’s airway obstruction under the instruction of the 111 call taker. An ambulance had been dispatched – I phoned the family to get an update and to provide immediate support. Through a video call I was able to see baby. This showed me that the immediate risk to baby had been resolved and now monitoring was required which, with instruction, the parents would be perfectly able to do at home. I provided them with information on what to look out for over the coming hours and days and when to visit their GP or medical centre if they were concerned.”
Isaac’s prompt contact and care over the video call meant this family didn’t have an unnecessary trip to the emergency department and the crew from Wellington Free Ambulance who had been dispatched were safely able to stand down and attend to another patient in need.
Can you please donate today to help us continue to expand our clinical hub services to ensure anyone who calls 111 can benefit immediately from contact with paramedics like Isaac?
The donation you make today will go towards ensuring this freely accessible, highly professional, trained and experienced team of healthcare professionals can continue to support our community today, tomorrow and for years to come.
Your support is essential.
18,881 calls to 111 supported
Last year Isaac and the team in the clinical hub supported 18,881 calls to 111, providing immediate advice, input and support to the people calling needing urgent care.
7,630 incidents resolved
Over the past year, 7,630 incidents were resolved by the clinical hub team, meaning the patients got the care they needed over the phone.
221 frontline paramedics
Wellington Free's paramedics are here for everyone across Greater Wellington and Wairarapa in a variety of roles, including clinical paramedic advisors, extended care paramedics and critical care paramedics.
"You can make a significant impact on patient experience and care from the clinical hub. Being able to direct people to the right treatment, right place, doing that over the phone means I am providing even more help to people."
- Isaac, Paramedic and Clinical Paramedic Advisor
24/7, 365 days a year
The Clinical Communications Centre is staffed by our emergency medical dispatchers and call takers, 24/7, 365 days a year - just like our emergency ambulance service.
243,093
In the past year, our team answered 246,093 calls for help. These included 179,536 emergency 111 calls, where we provided care the moment a 111 call was answered.
The clinical hub is located within our Clinical Communications Centre in Thorndon - this is one of three Clinical Communications Centres across the country. The other two are in Auckland and Christchurch.
The clinical communications team answer calls to 111 24/7, 365 days a year, triaging and prioritising ambulance dispatches.
The clinical hub is staffed by a team of highly trained and experienced paramedics - our clinical paramedic advisors (CPAs). CPAs:
Speak directly to patients, providing immediate paramedic support.
Review the initial triaging of 111 calls (the assessment of patients to decide how urgent their illness or injury is and how soon treatment is needed).
Provide advice and guidance to paramedic crews responding to patients across our region.
In the past year alone, CPAs treated 7,630 incidents over the phone.
That's thousands of patients who were treated safely over the phone - the CPA team made sure they got the treatment that was right for them and their situation.
Like all services we provide, this expert paramedicine healthcare is completely free of charge.
Your donation today will ensure that Isaac and the paramedic crews at Wellington Free can continue supporting the community free of charge.
Cost to the people of Greater Wellington and Wairarapa needing our help:
$0
Thanks to your continued and vital support.
Each year we must fundraise over $8 million to keep our services free.
Please donate today
If you're interested in donating on a monthly basis, you can do so via internet banking. Click here for our details. Otherwise, you can contact our team by calling 0508 932 3733 or by emailing donate@wfa.org.nz.