Stat Ambulance Services will be New Zealand’s leading provider of helicopter ambulance providers offering top class services to all of New Zealand.
MISSION STATEMENT: Our mission is to provide the ultimate quality of immediate pre-hospital care and emergency and non emergency transport services via our helicopters with high regards to compassion, commitment and competence to the whole New Zealand population.
OBJECTIVES:
- To uphold high standards of competency among health team members without forgetting compassion and sensitivity to the needs, emotions and culture of the patients and their loved ones
- To provide individually-tailored pre-hospital care regardless of but with utmost consideration for race, gender, age, social status and educational background
- To promote integrity and respect for human dignity not only of patients but to all employees as well
- To ensure that all patients and/or relatives are considered partners in care which means having a share in the decision-making and encourage participation in providing care
- To be ready to deliver services to anyone, anywhere, 24hours a day, 7 days a week
LEGAL ISSUES
Sole Trader As a sole trader the individual fully or solely owns the business. The business is usually small in size particularly in the sales generated and in the number of staff employed. Being a sole trader has a number of advantages. One of the advantages of it would be the ease in starting it up. You don’t have to consult other people on how you will start the business, when to start or stop it, the changes that you would want your business to undergo and those kinds of critical decisions.
It also has almost no legal formalities like contracts with other people. It is also not requirement for it to be registered. The secrets within the business do not have to go out since you are the only one involved in planning and strategizing. However it also has its disadvantages. Though the profit is not shared, liabilities are not shared as well. The business owner will carry all the loss of the business on his shoulder. Also, investing on the growth of the business is difficult. Doing this will require a huge amount of capital.
Lastly, sole traders are hugely affected by larger organizations. Sole proprietorship hardly copes with the demand and supply of the market because they do not have enough money to buy more equipment, increase its productions, adopt new technology and develop new ideas.
Partnership For a partnership to exist there must be a contract or an agreement between at least two people. Because of the presence of contracts or agreements, it must be lawful and abide by laws of the government and the Companies Act. There is also sharing of profits and losses.
This means that even if the income generated must be split among partners, the loss does not have be a burden to only one person. So the liabilities are not as heavy as that of a sole trader. Shares also can be shared. However, the most important aspect of any partnership is faith and trust amongst partners. Without this, even the business is doing great, the business will definitely close. Like previously mentioned, it should be between people agreeing on certain guidelines.
Limited Liability In limited liability, shareholders are not liable for debts of the company that they own shares in.
They are a separate entity from the owners of the business. Unlike partnership, the company or the business may continue its existence irrespective of the existence of partners. This is called perpetual succession. Whether the owner of the business dies or the transfer of the shares to a new entity it will live on. It also operates on the basis of agreement and terms. With its complexities, it is definitely the most difficult to set-up because of legal and financial matters. Also, the owner’s liability for the business’s debts is limited to what was invested.
With the kind of business I wish to set-up, I have decided to adopt a limited liability structure of a business. As an owner and a shareholder, I will not only protect myself during times of crisis but also I am protecting people who are investing in my company. Donations and investments will be the main source of finances that is why this type of structure is most appropriate for me. It will also have a pass-through taxation which means that it will not be taxed twice in the corporate level and shareholder’s level. It also has less paperwork and administrative work than corporations.
It may be difficult to set-up, but because I know that sales talk is one of my strengths as a business owner, I would easily be able to persuade people to invest in my company. Also, because of the security of having protection for shareholders, people would feel safe and confident to buy shares of my company which means more money for me. Because limited liability is an internationally recognized structure, the limited liability company structure enjoys greater credibility and a more professional image in the marketplace than the sole trader option.
Lastly, when it comes to control over operations, I still vote for limited liability. Often the largest shareholders are the managing directors. In larger companies, most shareholders have no say in its daily operations. However, all shareholders who hold voting shares in a company may participate in the election and removal of directors. This gives shareholders the collective right to elect the directors and have ultimate control of the company without necessarily being concerned with its day-to-day affairs. It may not be that beneficial to me as the owner at first, but in the long run it will do my business good if there would be heaps of investors and shareholders.
Flying a helicopter ambulance would entail different regulations from the New Zealand government and different regulatory bodies. Policies that need to be considered would be a lot but the top three are the Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act of 2003, Guidelines for Contracting with Non-Government Organizations for Services Sought by the Crown and the Aviation Industry Association Air Ambulance Operation Standards.
Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act of 2003 The HPCA Act was introduced by the government in 2003. The principle purpose of the Act is “to protect the health and safety of members of the public by providing for mechanisms to ensure that health practitioners are competent and fit to practice their professions”. The Act sets out the rules for the way practitioners are registered, the process for complaints and how professional competence is maintained and assessed. The Act includes ways to make sure health practitioners are competent and fit to practice their professions for the duration of their professional lives.
Having one Act for the regulation of health professionals means there are consistent procedures and terminology across all those professions. Examples of other health practitioners currently covered by this Act include doctors, nurses, midwives, chiropractors, dentists, dental hygienists, psychotherapists, occupational therapists, physiotherapists, medical laboratory scientists and many others. In total of 21 Health professional groups are regulated under the Act. Guidelines Contracting with Non-Government Organizations for Services Sought by the Crown
The Government provides funding to a large range of NGOs, for a wide range of public purposes, through a number of portfolios and Government agencies. Many of these funding relationships are with not-for-profit organisations (including community and voluntary sector organisations, iwi, hapu and other Maori organisations). The Government has expressed a clear wish for a good working relationship with the community and voluntary sector, and these guidelines are intended, among other things, to help support this relationship.
All these funding arrangements involve an agreement of some kind. That agreement is usually a contract that can be legally enforced by either party (and hence the term “contracting” is used generally throughout these guidelines), but in some cases may involve a conditional grant. The agreement represents an exchange of undertakings by the parties to each provide something of value to the other, although in practice that benefit may be provided to a third party.
