St John is planning to axe a raft of community programmes including its hospital volunteers, community carers and pet therapy services.
In an email to volunteers, St John said it has had to make some tough decisions about where it can have the greatest impact with the resources it has as it looks to its 10-year strategy.
It said that, after careful consideration, it would no longer be the provider of these services.
The organisation said it was focused on a new strategy and the move was not financially motivated.
St John had 1100 volunteers working in hospital emergency departments, supporting patients and their whānau and offering support to long stay patients. It also visited rest homes, reading to residents and helping with grocery shopping.
It said it would explore over the next few months whether the services could be transitioned to other organisations.
Hato Hone St John deputy chief executive Pete Loveridge told RNZ it was a difficult decision to make.
He said St John was ensuring their community programmes took pressure off their own emergency services as part of the 10-year strategy.
“We made the difficult decision to review some of the national programmes and look at what we might move some of our energies and volunteers to,” Loveridge said.
“This is not about money… This is about us focusing our energies on where we believe the new strategy should be placed.”
He said St John was working with volunteers to help transition the programmes over the next 10 months.
“In all deep honesty, I want to ensure these volunteers can still contribute in the same way they are doing now, and we are going to be working over the next 10 months to look for new providers to continue those services,” he said.
Loveridge said some programmes already had “sister programmes” proving similar services and St John hoped to engage with them.
He said the programmes would continue until June 2026.
rnz.co.nz
