St John's Ambulance Volunteers at Adamstown will be better equipped to respond to incidents in Newcastle following a $56,200 grant given by the NSW Government under the Club Grants scheme.
The Adamstown facility will purchase a new fully-equipped emergency response vehicle for volunteers to use for events in Newcastle.
The volunteer ambulance service will offer assistance at over five events in Newcastle this weekend, including the Newcastle 500 Supercars event.
Parliamentary Secretary for the Hunter, Scot MacDonald said the volunteer service is facing an increased workload and will benefit from the funding.
"They really need the assets to get the gear out to the big public events that you see," Mr MacDonald said.
"Of course they'll be everywhere all over Supercars, but they need the vehicles behind them to carry the gear, to make sure they've got the safest equipment, and make sure they've got the technology to back up their volunteer efforts."
The new vehicle will allow easy access to emergency equipment in off-road incidents and extreme weather events.
St John's Ambulance service provides first aid services for free to people in distress and danger.
The funding has been provided under the NSW Club Grants scheme, which has contributed over $50 million dollars of gaming machine revenue into community projects during this term of government.
The funding programme was upgraded in 2017 to make the application process more simple for community organisations to request funding from the government.
Scot MacDonald said the volunteers will have the latest equipment to carry out their work.
St John's Ambulance service is hoping to be able to more quickly respond to incidents in Newcastle, as the new vehicle will be situated in the facilities at Adamstown.
 |
| Parliamentary Secretary for the Hunter Scot MacDonald MLC with St John Ambulance volunteers at their training facility in Adamstown. |
