It is aware of the best nearest resources, is constantly updating its information and is still unlikely to dispatch a local helicopter to the aid of people on Stewart Island who suffer a medical event or accident, St John says.
The comments were made in response to questions about a recommendation in the Otago-Southland coroner's formal findings on the April 2009 death of Dunedin man Raymond Basil De Thierry (55).
Mr De Thierry drowned while snorkelling during a hunting and fishing trip at Stewart Island.
He was found by his son, who pulled him out of the water at Murray Beach.
Others of their seven-member hunting party tried to revive Mr De Thierry, but were unsuccessful.
During the inquest into Mr De Thierry's death, coroner David Crerar raised the issue of a "systems breakdown".
He said a rescue helicopter from Te Anau, rather than Invercargill or Stewart Island, was dispatched by St John's southern communications centre to the aid of Mr De Thierry.
It did not arrive for 35 to 40 minutes.
"As I understand matters, there was helicopter assistance available based in Stewart Island, with a significantly shorter travel time than the helicopter from Te Anau," he said.
However, he did note the evidence was even if a helicopter had been sent from one of the closer destinations, Mr De Thierry would still have drowned.
He released his formal findings into Mr De Thierry's death last week.
They included a recommendation to forward them to St John to draw its attention to the need for early recognition to be given to available rescue resources.
The availability of helicopter and appropriate medical support in regions needed to be constantly updated so the most appropriate support was used in an incident, he said.
Last week, St John Emergency Ambulance Communication Centre (EACC) operations manager, Alan Goudge, said St John was aware there were medical staff and a helicopter on Stewart Island, but the helicopter was deemed not suitable because it was not one of the appropriately equipped providers with which St John and ACC had contracts.
The helicopter air ambulance providers it used in the South were based in Te Anau, Queenstown and Dunedin, he said.
Helicopters and their crews were dispatched based on which would provide the fastest, most appropriate response, he said.
In Mr De Thierry's case, two volunteer ambulance officers who lived on Stewart Island were dispatched immediately upon receipt of the emergency 111 call, Mr Goudge said.
At the same time the EACC call-taker dispatched an air ambulance from Te Anau, Mr Goudge said.
"While we were aware that a helicopter was on Stewart Island ... it is vital that air ambulances have the capability necessary for treating and transporting patients," Mr Goudge said.
St John members had strong local community connections so were constantly aware of available resources.
That information was kept in a shared register with EACC staff, he said.
Decisions about dispatching appropriate resources during an emergency were based on a range of criteria and protocols, including clinical priorities and optimum outcomes for patients.
Mr Crerar said Mr De Thierry had been wearing a lead-laden diving waist belt that did not have a quick-release buckle.
Not being able to release the heavy belt when he got into difficulty would have been a significant contributor in his death.
Mr De Thierry's death reinforced the need for people to use a quick-release buckle; go diving with a buddy; wear fins while free-diving; abandon the weight belt and catch bag at the first sign of difficulty and carry a knife while free-diving, he said.
The coroner found Mr De Thierry lost his footing while collecting paua in the sea and was unable to regain safe ground.
