POAC St John Ambulance Service
St John Initiated Referrals
St John may initiate a referral to POAC to assist in providing safe alternatives for people who have called emergency services for ambulance attendance.
These may be generated in the following ways:
St John Paramedic Diversion - Urgent Care Clinic or GP
Paramedic in-person assessment of patient
Patient suitable for community-based management (if non-urgent advised to follow up with GP routinely)
St John transfer to UCC/GP, OR advised to self-present (where clinically appropriate and patient has access to reliable transport). POAC referral recorded on the electronic or paper patient record form
St John Clinical Hub Referral - via Emergency Q App
Within the St John Clinical Hub, suitably trained clinicians provide telephone triage for lower-acuity calls. This is to ensure that people who have called 111 receive the right care, in the right place, at the right time.
Where appropriate, patients are given advice to be seen at a local Urgent Care Clinic, without receiving an ambulance response, whereby the cost of the consultation will be covered by POAC.
See below correspondence and referral process poster for more information.
POAC Funding
Submit a referral to POAC in the normal way, indicating that the referral was 'initiated by' St John
Claim the full costs that would normally have been charged to the patient for the assessment and management provided for that attendance