Hato Hone St John unveils New Zealand’s first dedicated paediatric ambulance, with Auckland service starting next week
Hato Hone St John has unveiled New Zealand’s first custom-built paediatric ambulance, a purpose-designed vehicle that will begin shuttling critically ill and injured children between hospitals from next week. Based in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland, the ambulance is the result of a partnership with Health New Zealand and Starship Child Health, and the build was funded by the Tauranga-based Wright Family Foundation.
Until now, sick children needing inter-hospital transfers in Aotearoa have travelled in standard adult ambulances, fitted out as best as paramedics could manage with whatever paediatric kit was on hand. Around 1,000 children a year require an ambulance transfer in New Zealand, and about 60 percent of those journeys end at Auckland’s Starship Children’s Hospital, the country’s main centre for high-acuity paediatric medicine. Last year alone, Starship’s paediatric intensive care retrieval team made roughly 290 trips fetching the most seriously unwell tamariki from regional hospitals, a workload that runs essentially every day of the year.
Debra Larsen, who oversees patient transfer services at Hato Hone St John, said the new vehicle was designed around the realities of treating very small patients in transit. The ambulance “moves away from the traditional, plain ambulance environment” and creates “a space that supports both high-quality clinical care and a more reassuring, safe and engaging environment for our youngest patients”, she said. The layout has been reworked so clinicians can reach a child from more than one side of the stretcher, and there is dedicated room for the bulky intensive care equipment a paediatric retrieval team carries — incubators, ventilators, infusion pumps and monitoring kit that often crowds an adult-sized ambulance bay.
A locker has been built in to hold what the team is calling purpose-driven distraction activities — small toys, books and sensory items pitched at different ages, designed to settle children before and during a transfer. Larsen said the ambulance “recognises the vital role of whānau, enabling them to remain close and connected throughout what can often be a distressing journey”, with seating that lets a parent stay alongside their child rather than being separated for the trip. The interior is finished in a kiwiana flora and fauna theme that mirrors the feel of Starship’s wards, with artwork created in-house by Hato Hone St John staff to soften the clinical look.
Starship Child Health welcomed the addition of a vehicle built specifically for its retrieval team. A spokesperson said clinicians were “deeply grateful to Hato Hone St John and the generosity of the Wright Family Foundation in providing our PICU retrieval team with a purpose-built ambulance”, adding that the design “will allow our team to deliver specialist care from the first moment of transfer, reducing delays and improving safety”. For families in the regions, that has tangible meaning. A child in respiratory failure being moved from Tauranga or Whangārei to Starship’s intensive care unit needs the same level of monitoring on the road as they would in a hospital bed, and the new layout is meant to make that easier rather than improvised.
Among the first to see the ambulance was nine-year-old Taylin O’Connor, who lives with cystic fibrosis and has spent more than his share of time inside ambulances. Taylin told reporters at the unveiling that he liked the colours and the kiwiana artwork. His mother Shannon said the small touches would “create a lot of calm” for parents and children who are often frightened and exhausted by the time they meet the crew at the hospital door.
The Wright Family Foundation is a Tauranga-based philanthropic trust that has put a significant share of its giving into children’s health and education over recent years. Funding the build and fit-out of the new ambulance fits a pattern of donations aimed at lifting standards of care for tamariki who are already in difficulty. Hato Hone St John, which is a charitable organisation rather than a fully government-funded service, relies on this kind of partnership to top up its operating fleet. Vehicles in the standard fleet are usually replaced on a multi-year cycle, with each new generation slightly better equipped, but this is the first time the service has commissioned an ambulance dedicated to a specific patient cohort.
The new ambulance will operate as part of the inter-hospital transfer service rather than the front-line 111 fleet, meaning it will be dispatched primarily for planned and time-critical retrievals between hospitals rather than emergency call-outs. That said, when Starship’s PICU team is mobilised to a regional emergency, the new vehicle will go with them. From next week, the bright, kiwiana-painted bay will be a familiar sight on the motorway between Auckland and the upper North Island’s main hospitals, and over time the model is likely to be replicated. Hato Hone St John has not yet announced a second build, but Larsen indicated the lessons from the Auckland vehicle would inform any future paediatric specialist ambulances that follow.
It is a small step in absolute terms — one ambulance among hundreds — but for the families who end up needing it, the move from a generic ambulance bay to a purpose-built one will be the difference between a frightening blur and a slightly less frightening one. The country has waited a long time for it.
What do you make of the new paediatric ambulance? Have you or your tamariki ever needed an inter-hospital transfer, and what was the experience like? Share your thoughts in the comments below.