The regional trend follows a national one where the number of medical callouts the New Zealand Fire Service attends has more than doubled in the past six years.
Fire service figures show that in 2003-04 Otago fire crews were called out to medical emergencies 130 times.
By 2008-09 the number of medical callouts had risen to 396.
Nationally, the figure grew from 2177 medical callouts (3% of all callouts) in 2003-04 to 5285 in 2008-09 (7% of all callouts).
The callouts occurred when ambulance services were delayed or unable to respond; the Fire Service was closer, or it was needed to assist ambulance services at or on the way to an incident scene.
They did not include instances where the Fire Service was called to provide specific rescue equipment, such as rescuing people from car crashes, or to assist members of the public in life-threatening situations.
Under a national agreement signed between the Fire Service and St John ambulance in 2005, if the Fire Service can arrive at a medical emergency before an ambulance, then it is sent.
Jon Graham, from the department of operations and training at New Zealand Fire Service national headquarters, said 14% of callouts involved the Fire Service working with ambulance teams.
"It's a reasonable amount. It has been increasing over the years."
There were several reasons for the increase, including that there were more emergency medical calls as the population aged; Fire Service staff were trained to a higher level, so St John were happy to use them more; and the public were getting more used to fact the fire brigade might be the first to arrive, and in some cases were calling it directly.
However, the Fire Service was there to assist, not as a substitute for ambulances.
"We're not replacing ambulances. We're just there to lend a hand," Mr Graham said.
In the case of a fire crew being sent to a medical callout, it was usually because an ambulance would get there, but the fire crew was more likely to get there first and could administer aid until the ambulance arrived.
"Some people are confused [when a fire appliance arrives], but they're happy to get any help."
There were more medical callouts where the ambulance stations were spread thinly on the ground, especially in rural locations, he said.
The Fire Service received no funding for attending medical callouts, although where firefighters were part of a first-response team, St John funded training for members to a pre-hospital emergency care level.
However, brigades had to raise funds for the vehicles and equipment they needed.
Fire Service southern region commander Stu Rooney said the Fire Service had made various appropriate arrangements with St John to suit requirements in different areas of the region.
There were seven first-response teams in Otago and Southland: at Omarama, Otematata, Omakau, Clinton, Dipton, Ohai and Edendale.
First-response teams had been set up in locations were St John had indicated to the fire service there were gaps in its service.
In Portobello and Port Chalmers there were no formal arrangements with the Fire Service or St John regarding medical callouts and the higher level of training and response that existed was purely community-driven.
The arrangements were varied, but worked in a way that best met community expectations by sharing the demands of those expectations between emergency service volunteers for the greater community good, Mr Rooney said.
Coastal Otago manager for St John, David Jasperse, said the arrangements were "just common sense" in a region with such a large geographical spread and given the financial restraints on St John compared with the Fire Service.
St John operations director Tony Blaber told the New Zealand Herald that ambulance services were ill-equipped to deal with the level of callouts.
"Ambulance services in New Zealand are not sufficiently funded to meet the ever-increasing demand.
"The Fire Service is substantially better resourced, including the provision of fire stations."
He said St John's 2007 submission to the Health Committee noted ambulances respond three times more often than the the Fire Service and the per capita funding was less than 50% of fire service funding.
There are about 435 fire stations and 200 ambulance stations in New Zealand.
- Additional reporting: The New Zealand Herald
