In the event of an emergency operation in the ACT, St John forms part of the first response in partnership with Emergency Services Agency, Commonwealth Agencies and the ACT Government.
As a community organisation operating purely for the benefit of the ACT community, we take our role in the State Emergency Management Plan very seriously.
St John Ambulance ACT contributes to the Plan as a key first aid provider, increasing the state’s preparedness, response and recovery capacity in the event of a State Emergency.
As part of the Ambulance and First Aid Functional Service, we can readily mobilise responders to provide support to emergency services during times of bushfires, floods, extreme weather events, and as we have seen in the last few years, unprecedented events like a pandemic.
More recently we have exercised our role in response to the summer 2019/20 bushfires, which saw us providing first aid support to firefighters on the front line, as well those displaced to Evacuation and Recovery Centres. Following this we subsequently supported the community in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
We value the multi-agency approach the State Emergency Management Plan fosters for times of State Emergencies or disaster so that the ACT community can be most effectively supported and protected.