About Us
We are the only emergency ambulance service in greater Wellington and the Wairarapa, and the only ones in the country who are free.
We are the only emergency ambulance service in greater Wellington and the Wairarapa, and the only ones in the country who are free.
What we doOur news
Increased funding boosts Wellington Free Ambulance Patient Transfer Service
Increased funding boosts Wellington Free Ambulance Patient Transfer Service
04 March 2018
Wellington Free Ambulance provides a non-urgent Patient Transfer Service as part of its care to the people of Greater Wellington and Wairarapa.
Patient Transfer is funded by the DHB and involves Wellington Free Ambulance transporting patients in specialist vehicles to and from scheduled hospital treatments.
Wellington Free Ambulance Chief Executive Mike Grant says that the Patient Transfer aspect of the service has been through a recent review to improve efficiencies. He says that the review, along with an increase in DHB funding means it is in a strong position.
“We found a few areas where we could do things more efficiently,” he explains.
“The main thing has been opening up the lines of communication between us and our DHB partners. Our people now meet together monthly to jointly plan and coordinate patient transfer schedules.
“A new booking process also means that our Patient Transfer Service coordinators have all the information they need about a patient’s condition and transport requirements before we set out to collect them, so we can be sure to send the right resource to them right from the start.
“We have great people doing excellent work in this space,” Mike Grant says. “Many of our Patient Transfer staff get to know their patients personally, so we are very pleased to have this part of our service in such good shape.”