2021 ambulance subscriptions are now available and we are delighted to announce that we have improved and completely refreshed our ONLINE payment system.

This means you will be able to join or renew your membership to the St John subscription scheme ONLINE, by using a credit or debit card, from the comfort of your home or office. The new system will make it easier and more efficient for you, and give you instant peace of mind. There will be no need to complete a paper form or visit the ambulance station to renew your subscription for 2021. Paper forms will still be available for anyone who does not have access to a computer or who is not online.

If you are an existing member of the St John ambulance scheme we will write to you before the end of November 2020 with details of how to renew online.

If you are not currently a member of the St John subscription scheme, but would like to join for the calendar year 2021 you will be able to log on to http://subscription.ambulance.gg and register before the end of year, ready for January 2021.

Ambulances in Guernsey are not free. St John provides the emergency ambulance service on behalf of the States of Guernsey, through a contract with the Health & Social Care Committee. The contract only covers a proportion of the total costs. St John as a charity has to make up the remainder of the costs through the subscription scheme or charges. Anyone who isn’t a member of the 2021 subscription scheme and who doesn’t have adequate health insurance will be charged on average £380 for an emergency ambulance.

(A full list of charges and subscription charges for 2021 can be found online at  https://ambulance.gg/subscriptionprices

Chief Financial Officer Stuart Brennan said “The new online payment system will make the process of joining the St John Subscription scheme quicker, easier and more efficient for everyone. In redesigning and modernising the payment system we are now able to offer a similar service to other organisations, which is what islanders have been telling us they wanted.”

“I would strongly recommend joining the St John Subscription Scheme because for as little as £36 for an adult you are covered for unlimited emergency ambulance calls for a whole year and will avoid a charge of £380, so it gives you peace of mind in the unfortunate event that you need our help”, he added.

The new St John online payment portal has been developed by local company Resolution IT. Business Solutions Architect Dave Wratten said “Over the last couple of months I worked with St John and created several web apps to provide an up-to-date solution for their Subscription process. This also included the Self-Service portal allowing members of the public to renew their subscription from home without having to fill out any paper forms. For the members of the public who still complete their renewal on paper we have built an OCR (Optical Character Recognition) process to extract the data from the forms. This allows the St John team to review the scan rather than having to manually input every renewal. I have really enjoyed working on this project to help St John utilise the latest technology in order to save them time to focus on delivering their emergency service.”

“We build these applications with the Secure by Design principals, so security is considered from the ground up. As part of the development a security test was conducted by an independent 3rd party. They are also built to be reactive to allow seamless integration with different devices such as iPad and smart phones” he added.

St John would encourage islanders to use the new online system http://subscription.ambulance.gg however if individuals don’t have access to the internet other payment options, including payment by cheque, are available. You can also set up direct debit by using the online portal and following the relevant steps.

Marine Ambulance subscriptions, covering the Flying Christine III are also available now through the new online payment system.

 

 

Posted: November 22, 2020