Greens call for action on ambulance services

The Green Party has called for a review of ambulance services after revelations that a relative of a sick Huntly baby were forced to drive the vehicle while the paramedic took care of the child.

The incident happened on July 15 when a single-crewed Huntly ambulance responded to a call to a baby having breathing difficulties on a Friday night.

The paramedic arrived and discovered the 10-week-old baby was not breathing.

Midlands ambulance manager Brent Nielsen said the paramedic asked a family member, a competent driver, if they were prepared to drive the ambulance immediately to Waikato Hospital.

Green Party health spokeswoman Sue Kedgley said the case showed how serious ambulance staffing issues were.

"Ambulance officers are front- line health professionals, but there is no mandatory national standard governing them, or enough funding to make full crewing possible," she said.

An independent operational review was needed to look at the structure and effectiveness of the ambulance sector.

St John chief executive Jaimes Wood said the service was conducting a "gap analysis" in conjunction with the Ministry of Health and ACC to discover where the service fell short.

He said about 10 to 15 per cent of all callouts were made by single-crewed ambulances.

"Sometimes it is absolutely fine, sometimes it is not," Mr Wood said.

The ministry last month approved funding for an extra 15 ambulance officers nationwide and he expected once the study was completed there would be more money.

But on top of staffing issues, Mr Wood said, was the fact that the number of callouts for ambulances had increased between 6 to 8 per cent in the past two years.

New Zealand standards state that ambulances providing emergence responses should operate with a minimum of two crew.

"The bottom line is that in New Zealand we have single-crewed responses quite often," Mr Wood said.

He said ambulance volunteers nationally totalled 2200 and the number of full-time staff was dictated by funding.

The ministry was aware of the ambulance standards.

National Distribution Union organiser Neil Chapman said the incident highlighted the single-crewed ambulance issue.

He said there were many cases where single-crewed ambulances were not sufficient to deal with a callout.

In an incident in the Central Districts last week, a single-crewed ambulance was called out to the sick mother of a young baby.

The mother needed to be taken to hospital but the paramedic could not deal with her infant as well.

A second ambulance was called in for backup and Mr Chapman said it became a situation where the second ambulance was literally "left holding the baby".

Mr Chapman said the service could not rely on volunteers and more money for full-time staff was needed.

"What's the point in developing a standard but not abiding by it?"

Emergency numbers

* The number of callouts for ambulances increased between 6 and 8 per cent in the past two years.

* 10 to 15 per cent of all callouts were made by single-crewed ambulances.