Otago is set to lose one of its St John management staff when up to 30 positions are axed as part of cost-saving measures.
It was unclear which specific position would be disestablished but it would come from the region's five senior managers, 20 station-shift managers and two non-operational managers who worked in community health and first aid training.
St John chief executive Peter Bradley said the job loss would not directly affect frontline ambulance services or the quality of patient care.
"We invested in extra management in Otago around two years ago and as a result have an operating model that is embedded and working well. That has enabled us to disestablish one management role.
"We need to make cost savings of approximately 2% of the total budget in the 2016-17 financial year,'' Mr Bradley said.
Resourcing in Otago was in line with the rest of the country, he said.
St John announced on April 26 it was planning job cuts and was consulting internally on proposals to make cost savings in management and support.
The job cuts would affect about 1.5% of its 2200 employees across the country.
Paramedical Consultancy director and former Auckland and Canterbury St John paramedic Graham Roper, of Dunedin, said St John was disestablishing roles but not replacing those people with frontline staff.
"There's enough issues in the response times. You would think having people on the ground to make things work would continue to be the focus point,'' Mr Roper said.
"They're not replacing [them] with road staff so it's not improving services.
"These people are being lost from the system.''
The Otago Daily Times reported in May that St John was being forced to run a single-crewed ambulance in Dunedin due to a lack of funding.
First Union ambulance service staff organiser Neil Chapman could not be contacted yesterday but said in April no-one should be losing a job at St John.
"If anything, we need more crews in the emergency frontline service.''
