After the Oamaru-Dunedin Shuttle stopped in March, Trevor Goodin stepped up to ensure patients could still get to appointments by using his resources as the owner of Hireplus.
The arrangement was always meant to be temporary, but there has been no update on if or when St John will run a shuttle for patients.
Almost every day Mr Goodin drives patients on a pay-what-you-can basis.
It began when he started to get phone calls asking if he had a spare seat on his usual Dunedin airport runs, which soon grew to a dedicated shuttle, he said.
"Some people just can’t afford it."
He arranged what price people would be able to pay before travelling and would accept anything as a fair fee.
"I’ve taken people for nothing before."
Sometimes those fares covered the running costs, but not always.
This week he had nine people scheduled, but last week he took three patients each on different days.
He was committed to the run until St John established a shuttle or a better alternative was found, but he was concerned about how long that could take or if it could work at all, he said.
Hato Hone St John South Island community transport manager Mark Barbafiera said the town was "one of several locations" where it was looking into the viability of doing so.
"This process takes time, and we have no further update at this stage."
Aside from finding a vehicle and funding, St John would need to find a group of willing volunteer drivers and train them up, but last year Mr Goodin struggled to find enough drivers despite offering $30 an hour.
The logistics of running the donation service would soon become more complicated, as the busy season for shuttles started in October.
The reality was he might need to look at scaling back his business or changing how the donation shuttle was run, he said.
"I’ll continue for as long as I can."
He believed outside-the-box thinking would be necessary to find a real solution.
"Oamaru can do this, but it needs to be a community effort."
