A public survey for Guernsey’s ambulance service shows islanders think the service is doing its job well.

96% of people who used the St John Ambulance & Rescue Service in the past year said their experience was good, very good or excellent.

Meanwhile, 97% of people were “highly complimentary” of the respect and dignity shown by the ambulance crews.

The data comes from a survey of 1500 people by Islands Global Research.

Dean de la Mare, Head of Operations, said: “The results of the survey reflect a high-level of care and compassion shown by our ambulance crews, both in emergency and non-emergency services.”

The Non-Emergency Patient Transfer Service – a shuttle for patients to get to and from medical appointments – also scored highly in the research.

93% of patients rated their experience as good, very good or excellent and 92% said their standard of care was high.

Mr de la Mare added: “Public support for the ambulance service and appreciation for our clinical staff remains very high.

“Patients were given the opportunity to add their own comments, with exceptional compassion, kindness and respect being mentioned by most respondents.”

The Ambulance and Rescue team was described as highly professional and competent.

He added: “There were also many positive from patients who felt strongly that crews adapted [the way they] supported for vulnerable patients, especially those in distress, severe pain or with mobility issues.

“I would like to take this opportunity to publicly thank our ambulance crews for the exceptional service they deliver to our community every day.”

For the first time, patients were surveyed about the Joint Emergency Services Control Centre (JESCC) which answers 999 calls.

Nine out of 10 people said their experience was good to excellent with 92% praising the operators’ professionalism and a similar 91% happy with the speed of answer.

People were asked about the ambulance subscription scheme. 96% had recommended the scheme to others and 86% agreeing it was good value for money.

Mr de la Mare said: “The results are very similar to those of the last survey four years ago. Overall approval for the non-emergency patient transfer service has gone up while support for the emergency ambulance service remaining very high.

There will always be areas of improvement and the results and the comments will help us develop the service and look at any areas that need addressing.”

“With regard to the subscription scheme, awareness of the scheme has improved and the vast majority of members and non-members felt it was value for money.

“The survey also showed the online payment option is easy to use. For some people the subscription scheme was felt to be too expensive, however the cost of a subscription is much lower than a single ambulance call-out and we do offer a monthly payment option and people can join at any time of the year.”