Dunstan Hospital's plans for a pool of volunteer drivers as a backup when an ambulance is unavailable have stalled.
Concerns were raised in March about the number of times transfers of patients with acute conditions were delayed because no ambulance was available.
Central Otago Health Services Ltd (COHSL) general manager Carol Horgan said it was possible lives were at risk because of those delays.
Since then, she has been working with St John Central Otago district operations manager Peter Grayland to see how the problem could be addressed.
A "last-resort" option was volunteer drivers.
"We've sought advice from St Johns and other ambulance networks such as the Wellington Free Ambulance, and done our homework about having volunteer drivers," she said yesterday.
COHSL runs Dunstan Hospital.
Dr Horgan said if volunteer drivers were used to transport patients, the vehicle they used, as well as the people themselves, would have to meet national standards.
"The vehicle would have to meet a national standard and the people would need certain minimum qualifications and have their fitness levels assessed."
Those requirements would make it very complicated for the hospital to run such a service, so it had decided not to proceed at this stage, she said.
Central Otago St John was trying to recruit more volunteers, and the hospital supported its efforts to boost its staffing levels.
The hospital had received a "good number" of people registering as volunteer drivers.
They had all been asked if their names could be passed on to St John as volunteers, and nine had agreed, Dr Horgan said.
She was collaborating more closely with St John, and that organisation had made some changes to its Alexandra rosters to try and alleviate its staffing problem during the evenings.
Dr Horgan said she would keep a close eye on the situation during winter, which was the busiest time for the ambulance service.
She was hopeful that closer communication between all the parties, including doctors, would result in a pro-active approach to the problem.
