PRESS RELEASE
Thursday, 25 November 2009 - For immediate release

Wellington Free Ambulance officially launches event medical events unit

Wellington Mayor Kerry Prendergast will today officially launch Wellington Free Ambulance’s new unit, designed to provide medical services at the region’s events, at the new station on Kent Terrace.

WFA Chairman Mr Shaan Stevens believes that the establishment of this new unit, named Team Free, illustrates the organisation’s desire to expand its services and be even more active within the community that it serves.

“Sporting events, concerts, parades and open days all provide an outstanding opportunity for us to engage in a really positive way with the general public”, he says.

“At the same time our staff and volunteers will be ready to spring into action providing first-response event medical services and, if required, back-up will be immediately available from our dedicated front-line emergency ambulance service.”

Event managers and city leaders have already committed to using the new service at key events, including the premiere of Peter Jackson’s The Lovely Bones, New Zealand Sevens and the Waitangi Day Festival.

Mr Stevens highlighted that the support that they had received from the local councils has made this new service a reality and was pleased that Wellington Mayor Kerry Prendergast would be on hand to officially open the new premises.

Mayor Prendergast said: “Wellington is the events capital and Wellington Free Ambulance is a particularly Wellingtonian institution so I’m delighted by this link-up.

“The first-aiders who have traditionally attended events have done a marvellous job, but Team Free will bring a new level of seamless service and provide an extremely reassuring presence for the thousands who flock to our events.”

WFA has been providing ambulance services, free to the patient, since 1927. WFA’s services include first-response attendance at everything from major accidents to home emergencies; hospital patient transfer services; urgent community care; air rescue in association with the LifeFlight Trust; and first aid training for business and individuals.

Mr Stevens recognises that the WFA brand has been built over 82 years and anything they now do will need to maintain or enhance their reputation.

“We have to provide the same level of care and quality of service within Team Free that we would with any of our other services. For event managers, council staff and the film industry this means that not only can they support their local ambulance service but they will also get the best possible health and safety cover available”, he says.

In order to achieve this Team Free will have dedicated resources of its own rather than utilise one of the 30 vehicles the organisations already has on the road. The dedicated events station on Kent Terrace will house three fully refurbished Chevrolet Ambulances painted in the same iconic and recognisable colours as the rest of the emergency ambulance fleet; a mobile triage hospital; a four wheel drive vehicle and a quad motorcycle for getting quickly to all areas of an event or getting to hard to reach off-road locations. It will also be fully equipped to the same standards as other WFA stations in the region.

Thirty highly-skilled, expertly capable volunteers will staff the unit, each with at least Pre-Hospital Emergency Care (PhEC) accreditation and studying towards the National Diploma in paramedicine.

ends