The St John ambulance service has denied a claim it took an hour to deliver an ambulance from its York Pl headquarters to a central Dunedin supermarket where a customer had fallen and badly broken her arm.
Dunedin speech and drama teacher Mary Flaherty slipped on May 22 last year on a mat laid by builders during alterations at Centre City New World.
The incident, which left her with ongoing pain and arm mobility problems, had its sequel yesterday when Amalgamated Builders (2001) Ltd was sentenced in the Dunedin District Court on a Health and Safety in Employment Act charge.
Judge Stephen Coyle chastised St John for an inadequate response time and said he was "appalled" Mrs Flaherty had not been helped more promptly.
Mrs Flaherty told the court she was lying on the floor for an hour in excruciating pain, drifting in and out of consciousness, waiting for an ambulance to arrive. Her husband was told later the delay was due to misinformation or a communication breakdown.
Speaking to the Otago Daily Times yesterday, she understood supermarket staff had rung 111 three times before the ambulance arrived, calling the response "absolutely shocking" and the experience "horrendous".
But St John southern region communications co-ordinator Alena Lynch yesterday said records showed only a single 111 call was received, at 2.28pm, and the ambulance arrived at the supermarket 10 minutes later.
"We responded in the normal way. Ten minutes is an appropriate response time in the central city as far as we are concerned."
Asked how Mrs Flaherty could have been left on the floor for so long, Ms Lynch said she did not know.
It was possible those assisting her at the supermarket thought someone else had called 111, or possible a 111 call had not been passed on to St John, but those possibilities were only speculation.
St John did not intend to investigate further, she said.
Centre City New World manager James Flanaghan declined to comment yesterday and said nobody else from the store would comment either.
