The health service’s ambulance service has done a deal with St John Ambulance.

From this week, newly trained, full-time staff from St John Ambulance are handling all planned ambulance transfers for patients on stretchers.

The St John team operates between 8am and 6pm seven days a week, to transport patients whose journeys have been arranged in advance.

Until this week, the health service’s ambulance crews were frequently diverted from planned patient transfers to deal with 999 calls.

The joint venture is designed to free up regular crews for emergencies and mean fewer non-urgent transfers are cancelled at short notice.

St John Ambulance was appointed to run the transfer service after an open tender process.

The Examiner asked how much the charity was being paid to take over the service. But we were told the figure would not be divulged on the grounds of commercial confidentiality.

St John Ambulance has employed three full-time staff who have recently completed a training programme to become advanced first aiders.

The trio are now having more training and are working towards qualification as emergency care assistants.

Minister for Health and Social Care David Ashford MHK said: ’I welcome this new era of joint working with St John Ambulance, which will enhance a vital service the public holds dear. The organisation has an excellent track record and I’m confident it will provide a dedicated, professional service.

’At times, our ambulance crews are fully committed responding to emergencies and that usually means another patient’s planned move from Noble’s - to a nursing home, to Ramsey Cottage Hospital for rehabilitation or back to their own home - is put on hold.

’When discharges from hospital are delayed, patient flow slows down, so fewer beds are available for incoming patients.

’Delays create uncertainty and disappointment for the departing patient too, which we want to avoid. Our aim with the new service is to ensure transfers are carried out at the right time.’

The St John unit will also be used to transfer patients from hospital to the airport for planned air ambulance transfer to the UK, and for transfers between other facilities around the island.

A fully equipped vehicle from the existing fleet has been re-liveried for the new service with the wording ’Isle of Man Ambulance Service working in partnership with St John Ambulance’.

The crew and vehicle will be based at Douglas ambulance station.

John Gill, the chief officer of St John Ambulance, said: ’We’re delighted to be the partner providing this much needed service, as it’s a further development of our current working relationship with the island’s ambulance service. It builds on our links through the Community First Responder Scheme (CFR) which trains volunteers in the community to attend incidents where they are closer to them than the ambulance service.’