Country Ambulance Services Fuelled by Reliance Petroleum and BP Partnership

St John Ambulance has welcomed a donation of free fuel from Reliance Petroleum and BP  to fuel country ambulances in 2009. The pledge is the continuation of a successful sponsorship program that has seen Reliance provide more than $350,000 in free fuel to the Country Ambulance Service during the past five years.

St John Ambulance covers the largest single area of any ambulance service in the world – 2.5 million km2 - requiring significant travel time and therefore fuel consumption.

This donation allows St John’s regional sub-centres to focus funding on up-skilling volunteers, and purchasing and maintaining vehicles and vital life saving equipment.

Ultimately, the sponsorship is translating into improved services and patient care for residents in regional WA and we hope the partnership will continue into the future.

The 2009 allocation will be shared across 30 St John regional sub-stations throughout the State, from Hedland in the north to Wiluna in the east.

Many of our staff are touched by St John Ambulance throughout their lives, particularly in our line of work, so Reliance Petroleum is very proud to continue its support.

Reliance Petroleum sees this sponsorship agreement as our opportunity to give back to the service that supports our regional communities and look forward to another successful year in 2009.

St John’ s will also visit the Reliance Petroleum workplace and provide a full day first aid training course to 16 staff members.

The area is serviced by over 2000 dedicated volunteer ambulance officers and 70 paramedics, who travel in excess of 1.6 million kilometres within the country area annually, transporting over 32,000 people. In country WA, St John Ambulance Sub Centres are responsible for the delivery of ambulance services in their community. There are 104 country Sub Centres which are staffed entirely by volunteer ambulance officers and 12 country Sub Centres with a mix of volunteer and career ambulance officers.

For more information, visit the St John Ambulance website www.stjohn.org.au