A volunteer ambulance service is still being suggested for Palmerston by St John.
This is despite support from the East Otago doctors and others for the present ambulance service maintained by professional St John staff from Dunedin.
Local councillors and community spokesmen also support the present service where professional ambulance staff are sent out from Dunedin for calls to East Otago.
Offers by East Otago doctors and community groups to lobby the Government for extra funding have not been taken up by St John.
The East Otago doctors or a prime nurse attend accidents in the area and stabilise patients before the ambulance or air ambulance arrives.
Volunteers provided by St John for ambulance duties in the Palmerston area would be at the lower end of the training spectrum for some time, East Otago doctor Jeremy Hay said.
Extra work could be created for East Otago doctors who might have to accompany an ambulance to Dunedin if the ambulance volunteers were not qualified to provide morphine or when patients were unstable. But St John was concerned response times to calls to Palmerston could increase, coastal area manager David Jasperse said.
He wants "a more open meeting" with the East Otago Health Trust and doctors on the issue.
