A Dunedin businessman is questioning St John's response times after waiting an hour for help to arrive for an ailing customer.
Carl Lapham, owner of a business in Princes St, called 111 after an elderly man entered his shop and collapsed shortly before 1pm on Monday.
He spoke to St John call centre staff, who said help was on the way, but an ambulance did not arrive until shortly after 2pm.
Mr Lapham told the Otago Daily Times the man - believed to be aged about 70 - ''just walked into my shop, leant on a shelf, and then dropped.''
''He was unconscious on the floor for 30 seconds or so.''
The man regained consciousness and spent the next hour waiting in a chair for an ambulance to arrive.
Mr Lapham said he received a follow-up phone call from St John staff about 20 minutes after the man collapsed, apologising for the delay and asking further questions about the patient's condition.
St John staff told him they were too busy to attend because of incidents, including a crash involving an SUV in Kenmure Rd.
Mr Lapham said St John staff were ''very polite'', and, as an ex-volunteer firefighter, he did not want to criticise their ''bloody good service''.
However, he questioned the response time when his business was only a few blocks from the St John depot.
''They talk about getting someone to the hospital in that golden hour ... [it] is a long time for an ambulance to arrive in the central city.''
St John Southern clinical control centre manager Liz Beavon said St John used an ''internationally recognised'' system to prioritise up to 1500 emergency calls it fielded each day.
Five ambulances were on duty in Dunedin at the time the man collapsed inside Mr Lapham's shop.
One had been ''on scene'' for an extended period with a pneumonia patient, while four others were responding to more immediately life-threatening incidents, she said.
St John records showed Mr Lapham's first call was received at 1.03pm, but the patient was said to be conscious and breathing, and his condition ''not immediately life threatening''.
St John staff called Mr Lapham back at 1.36pm to check on the patient, whose ''condition had improved'', she said.
An ambulance arrived at 2.02pm, 59 minutes after the first call, but the man declined to be transported to Dunedin Hospital after being assessed by paramedics.
