A letter signed by doctors Andrew McLeod, David Allen and Julian Pettit was sent to Mr Cunliffe on March 21 outlining serious concerns about "deficiencies in the ambulance service" and recommending four key areas for change.
Mr Cunliffe responded on April 1, saying in a letter to the GPs that four additional staff had been allocated to Wanaka over the winter, and another four for Queenstown.
"St John has confirmed there is a shortage of volunteers in Wanaka for a variety of reasons including sickness and injury.
Consequently, it has struggled to provide two crew on the ambulance around the clock.
However, new volunteer recruits are being trained and, when necessary, St John has arranged for an officer from Queenstown to cover the night shift in Wanaka," Mr Cunliffe said.
Mr Cunliffe also said he had asked his officials to work with St John to better understand the workload increases and volunteer issues in the region, "with a view to identifying a more sustainable solution for your community".
Dr McLeod yesterday acknowledged Mr Cunliffe had investigated promptly and responded.
The doctors felt they had now drawn attention to the issues, he said.
"He got on to it . . . He has acknowledged the busy time of winter. But our concern is we have been having problems 12 months of the year, not just the winter . . .
"I am pleased he's handed it on to ACC and St John . . . We will be watching this space," Dr McLeod said.
Dr McLeod said co-ordinating patient transfers to hospital was a big issue.
"Christchurch [communications centre] is very reluctant to move people away from here until the last link in the chain has been sorted.
Our feeling is to get them moving and hold them at Dunstan," Dr McLeod said.
The Wanaka Medical Centre GPs told Mr Cunliffe they had the utmost respect for and good relationships with St John.
They outlined several incidents where they felt the emergency service had failed because an ambulance or crew was unavailable.
They included a doctor attending a near drowning (in February), escorting a patient who was having fits to hospital (February) and attending an accident at a patient's home (March).
On the night of the Upper Clutha A&P Show (March 7), with an estimated 20,000 people in town (Wanaka's permanent resident population is about 7000), a St John crew was not available to attend an incident at a holiday park or an assault at a bar.
A Cromwell crew was called out, but when it arrived in Wanaka, it did not find its intended location so returned to base.
Those matters were dealt with by a doctor and police.
The Wanaka Medical Centre holds the government prime contract to support St John through the 111 system.
St John staff may decide to take patients to the medical centre for stabilisation and treatment before transferring the patient by helicopter or ambulance to hospital at Clyde (90km away) or Dunedin (280km away).
Advertisement
