00:00In the middle of winter, and with the health system already straining under one of the state's worst flu seasons on record, almost 100 people sacked from St John.
00:12Increasingly, our ambulance services are being compromised by bedlock in our emergency care system in our hospitals.
00:22St John's staff received a memo from CEO Kevin Brown telling them the job losses were part of a targeted reset.
00:30Designed to ensure the sustainability of our services into the future.
00:34The organisation put the cuts down to economic pressures, but stresses no frontline teams or services would be impacted.
00:42We are assured by St John WA Australia that these cuts will not affect frontline services, that is paramedic services and ambulance services, and we need to take them at their word.
00:57But the opposition says Health Minister Meredith Hammett has questions to answer.
01:02The Minister for Health needs to tell us when she was briefed about these job cuts, and if she was, what steps did she take to ensure there would be no impact on patients in the health system.
01:16The Minister's office says she found out yesterday, and the government's been assured the cuts will not impact paramedics.
01:23St John is already under pressure. It has a target of attending to 90% of calls within set time limits, but its response times remain stubbornly below those levels.
01:34And the government's warning St John's contract with the government sets out minimum performance standards.
01:39There are penalties on St John if they're not meeting their KPIs, so we're trying to get the balance right.
01:44St John says its focus remains on delivering safe, high-quality frontline services.
01:50To reduce pressures on hospitals and ambulance services, the government's asking people to go to urgent care clinics and use telehealth services if they can.
01:59To make sure that they're only calling an ambulance when they really need it.
02:03St John says some staff are being offered new jobs at the organisation.
02:09St John says steve means the public intervening
02:29to wellness services at SOTSSs, high-quality frontline services for services.
02:33St John says it's a very difficult topic of whether or not it's been corporate functions at SOTS, high-free next-lookingעdeath services.
