NSJA opens K840,000 new ambulance station in Lae

The National St John Ambulance service [NSJA] opened its new ambulance station in Lae last Friday.

Operating for almost 4 years now in Lae City and the surrounding communities, the NSJA has seen a rapid increase in the demand for its emergency medical response services.

Speaking to NBC News, the National St John Ambulance Assistant Commissioner Dr Arabella Koliwan says, since its establishment in 2022, their mobile medical response service has assisted and saved over 20,000 men, women and children.

"Each year we see a 33 percent growth in the demand for our emergency ambulance service. With this rapid increase we had to increase our fleet and staff, which calls for the need to have a proper station, to ensure we maintain our operational readiness against the growing demand," Dr Koliwan said.

This has led to the official opening of the new refurbished station, to ensure its operational capacity can cater for this growing demand.

The project was funded by the Australian Federal Police under the PNG–Australia Policing Partnership at the cost of K840,000.

Meanwhile, being the second largest city, Lae remains the second busiest city for the National St John Ambulance’s emergency medical response service.