KEY POINTS:
An asthmatic woman died in hospital, several weeks after a paramedic insisted on shifting her unconscious body from one stretcher to another instead of resuscitating her.
A single-crewed ambulance, the only one in the city, was sent to the aid of the Rotorua woman but the sole officer had to call for back-up when the asthmatic stopped breathing.
An on-call paramedic responded within three minutes to take care of the woman in the back of the ambulance, while the officer drove.
But when the ambulance arrived at Rotorua Hospital, the officer was "stunned" to watch the paramedic struggling to carry the limp patient - who was not breathing - from one stretcher to another instead of resuscitating her.
"She was unconscious and her mouth was goldfishing because the breathing mask had fallen off," one of several St John sources told the Herald on Sunday.
"He just insisted on changing stretchers. It was absolutely ridiculous shifting her, especially in her condition, when he should have concentrated on her breathing."
The woman was resuscitated at Rotorua Hospital but never recovered and died a few weeks later.
The single-crewed incident in November last year comes to light as Parliament investigates the performance of St John, which in turn has asked for Government funding to be doubled to $75 million over the next eight years.
Brent Neilsen, St John operations manager, said the patient was shifted to the different stretcher to make the transfer to hospital quicker.
Despite a formal complaint from the ambulance officer, Neilsen said neither the patient's family nor the coroner was notified and there was no need for "corrective action".
The incident was also raised at a March meeting in Rotorua attended by senior St John executives.
But the sources said the ambulance officer who drove the ambulance was "stunned" at what happened, and embarrassed about the care given to the woman in front of her distressed family.
"We can't say she would have survived but she would have had a better chance. She should have been given the best possible care."
Rotorua's Life Support Unit - a double-crewed ambulance - had been sent to Tauranga, leaving the single-crewed ambulance to cover the city and surrounding area.
An email obtained by the Herald on Sunday through a third party was sent to Neilsen by the sole ambulance officer suggesting the minimum back-up should be an advanced paramedic qualified to administer drugs and ambulances should have two crew members on board.
Neilsen responded: "Thanks for your interest however St John is not funded to provide an endless quantum of ambulances or staff.
"I would have expected your care of the patient was adequate given your skills and significant experience."
In a statement, Neilsen said there was no argument between the ambulance officer and paramedic over the stretcher incident.
But the day after the incident, the ambulance officer spoke to the paramedic and the area manager was called in to mediate.
The paramedic then criticised the performance of the ambulance officer, who was cleared of any wrongdoing, but the paramedic was not censured.
St John sources said senior management knew about the incident and the patient forms should have been audited by a medical officer. Other paramedics had been demoted or sacked for less serious errors or sent back for re-training, they said.
Chief executive Jaimie Wood told the Parliament health committee inquiry in October that an extra 400 paid frontline officers were needed.
Single-crewed ambulances were putting patients and staff at risk, and more money was the only solution.
