St John

Community Transport Service - Excellent – I was obliged to use the St John Ambulance Service Community Transport Service yesterday to convey me from Mandurah to Southbank Hospital for eye surgery and return later in the afternoon. Unfortunately, I had no other person to assist or transport options. I want to commend the lady who assisted me on the bookings phone, (unfortunately I cannot remember her name but she spoke with an accent that may have been Irish ?) She was very helpful, efficient, friendly and sorted out my problems quickly. I also want to commend the two drivers, Alan ? an English gent who drove me up to the hospital who was very friendly and cheerful and also Neole who picked me up and drove me back to Mandurah again. She was very helpful caring and friendly too. The vehicles were clean and great to travel in and I cannot commend you all highly enough for your absolutely brilliant service. Having eye surgery is not a happy event but all the St Johns staff and volunteers really made it a great day yesterday. I sincerely thank you all for a brilliant job well done. Please convey my thanks to them all. Best wishes and stay safe.

Training Course From Hell – I booked a First Aid course with St John Ambulance in March of this year as part of ongoing compliance for my job . I have decided to speak out now as I never received an apology or explanation from St John Ambulance for the way I was treated during the course by the Trainer. The online part of the course was out of date and continually showed error messages and had various other technical problems. I previously used St Johns for a First aid training course in 2015 and the online material was the same.

The Training course started out okay but during the next hours the trainer became more aggressive and rude. The trainer also discussed an accident scene that he had discussed with his colleagues at the local ambulance depot. This was totally unprofessional and completely irrelevant and unnecessary to this basic First Aid Course and was more about shock value as he described limbs separated from bodies as a result of a Motor Vehicle Accident.

As the course continued the trainer continued in an aggressive manner and I very nearly walked out. By the late afternoon the assessment came and the aggressive, rude and unprofessional behaviour escalated over the audit paperwork which had to be submitted by the trainer to his superiors. The trainer stated that he was responsible for the paperwork being a new requirement and he did not want any errors. I made two complaints to St John Ambulance regarding my treatment and both were ignored and no written response has ever been received. I also made a complaint to the Training Standards Authority which was also ignored.

I made the mistake of choosing St John Ambulance First Aid Training because like everyone else you would think that they would have the highest possible standards in all areas. Well I was so wrong. NEVER AGAIN.