Ambulance now alerts Coastguard and Surf Life Saving straight away

Coastguard and Surf Life Saving New Zealand (SLSNZ) are now told immediately when an ambulance call comes from a beach, the water or a place reachable only by boat.

Until now, coordination between ambulance, SLSNZ and Coastguard differed from region to region. The two new agreements give all four organisations a common system and bring marine partners into the response sooner.

“These agreements enable our dispatchers to share incident information instantly and keep it updated in real time,” said John-Michael Swannix, Hato Hone St John Integrated Operations Centre Primary Triage & Dispatch Manager.

The first agreement involves Hato Hone St John, Wellington Free Ambulance and SLSNZ. Emergencies on a beach or in the water can be shared with SLSNZ at any time, through a secure network to SurfCom, its national operations and communications centre in Auckland’s Marine Rescue Centre. SurfCom staff can then dispatch lifeguards.

A pilot of this arrangement began in 2018 and covered the northern part of the country. The new agreement expands it nationwide and brings Wellington Free Ambulance in for the first time.

The second agreement is between Hato Hone St John and Coastguard Tautiaki Moana. It connects Coastguard’s National Operations Centre with the same technology and sets up a national model that lets ambulance clinicians reach patients at locations only accessible by boat. It is the first national agreement between the two organisations.

“We have highly skilled surf lifeguards all over the motu who are capable and willing to help those in need, but they can only help if we know what’s happening,” said SurfCom Manager Laura Beanland-Stephens. Surf Life Saving has more than 90 patrol locations over summer and 40 Search and Rescue squads.

The agreements required work across all four organisations on governance, privacy and operational design.