Gilly’s arrival recompletes the four-strong team of critical care flight paramedics, who work in three-person crews with the equal number of pilots and air crew officers.
She brings nearly 15 years’ experience to the space, having trained in Auckland where she worked with Hato Hone St John ambulance teams for nearly a decade before relocating to the Bay of Plenty.
“During one of my training placements I got to work with a rescue helicopter team,” she says. “From that time I always knew that would be where I’d end up working.”
Gilly’s first full-time foray into air ambulance work was from 2019, when she spent more than two-and-a-half years working with Tauranga’s Trustpower TECT Rescue Helicopter service.
Having locked down the necessary skills in the air, she decided it was time to build her strategic muscles and “side-stepped” into the position of St Johns’ district operations support manager, a role that frequently took her to staffed and volunteer ambulance stations right around the East Coast.
“It is really useful to already know the territory and to be familiar with the needs of those communities,” she says.
“It’s no secret that many people in those communities have high health needs with often poor access to healthcare so having the means to get to them – with the support of the ambulance services on the coast – is just awesome.”
Having just relocated from Whakatane to a new home at Ohope, Gilly drives to Gisborne to start her four-day roster and stays on base until her final night-run is over.
And she’s not worried about being away from home during the downtime between shifts.
“I’ll be bringing my surfboard over and, if the chance arises, am keen to go fishing with other members of the team,” she says.
“I’m definitely a beach person and like to spend as much time in and around the water as I can.”
CAPTION: Already being familiar with the health needs of communities right around the East Coast gives a flying start to the Trust Tairāwhiti Eastland Rescue Helicopter team’s newest critical care flight paramedic, Gillian Gates.