KEY POINTS:
Ambulance provider St John has launched an internal investigation after a volunteer was told to drive her own car to an emergency callout.
St John sources said that when the Hamilton volunteer turned up to the station all the ambulances were busy on other jobs.
With no ambulances available, she was asked to respond to a "Code One" emergency in her own car, but refused.
"It's pretty Mickey Mouse stuff. What was she supposed to do? Weave in and out of traffic with her headlights flashing?" a source told the Herald on Sunday.
The ambulance officers' union is pushing for a public inquiry into stretched staffing levels, which routinely result in single-crewed vehicles being sent to emergencies - considered clinically unsafe by St John medical experts.
Sue Kedgley, chair of Parliament's health select committee, supports the idea of an investigation and labelled the ambulance services a "shambles".
"It's putting people's lives at risk all over the country, it really is a shambles. I don't think front-line health professionals should be run by a voluntary organisation. "
The Health Ministry says the Ambulance Standard is currently being reviewed.
The Hamilton case is the latest in a string of incidents in which St John ambulance services have been shortstaffed:
* A rescue helicopter was sent without paramedics to the scene of last month's bus crash in Tokoroa which injured 17 Korean tourists and resulted in four arms being amputated.
* Rotorua was left without a Life Support Unit (a double-crewed ambulance to cover 24/7 emergencies) because officers were sent to Taupo for the Iron Man event to cover a staff member who became ill.
* Hamilton was without an ambulance in the city for an hour on the night the volunteer was asked to use her own car.
* A Bay of Plenty woman had to drive an ambulance to hospital as her friend was treated by a paramedic in the back.
Neil Chapman from the National Distribution Union, the representative body for professional ambulance officers, said it was "frightening" how many similar stories were raised by ambulance officers. He called for a health select committee inquiry into ambulance services, and for Health Minister Pete Hodgson to release emergency funding for more paramedics.
Eddie Jackson, St John Midland chief executive, said Rotorua and Hamilton were never without emergency cover as ambulance services rely on "fluid deployment" of vehicles during busy stretches. Ambulances were constantly moving between satellite towns and the city hospitals, and advanced paramedics were on call 24/7 in rapid response vehicles - too small to transport injured patients to hospital.
Four ambulances and three helicopters were sent to the bus crash, but as paramedics were already at the scene, the helicopter from Rotorua was sent without an ambulance crew.
"It is not always necessary to have an ambulance crew on board a helicopter before it can fly to a scene," he said.
However, a crew member who asked to remain anonymous said that sending a rescue helicopter without paramedics was "not the norm". "That is unusual. All these little incidents are adding up to suggest something is not quite right."
On rare occasions, civilians, police and firemen have been asked to drive an ambulance. Up to 15 per cent of callouts are attended by a sole officer, a practice considered clinically unsafe.
