Margaret Corkery-Young said that on New Year’s Day she had problems with her left eye after an operation on December 10 last year.
"There were complications, and I had to wait for nearly nine hours to get an ambulance.
"It’s just worrying that this could happen. I should not have had to wait that long."
A first responder came to see her while she waited.
"I rang 111 at 8.45pm, he arrived at 9.15pm. He waited with me, and we talked.
"He told me to space out the medication that I had, because he could only offer me paracetamol.
"I held out until about 6.30am, when I rang 111 [again]. I was first in line. They arrived very quickly at 7.10am."
The ambulance staff were very accommodating and concerned, she said.
After being transported to Dunedin, she had to wait about 90 minutes before she was seen for treatment for her eye.
"I had a doctor who sat with me. She was concerned about the delay.
"The person from the ophthalmology department gave me some lotion for one of the stitches in my eye."
She said she was extremely upset with the wait, but understood it was not the staff’s fault.
She said she understood there were only three ambulances operating in the region at the time she called the ambulance.
Those services were expected to cover a large region from Lawrence to Southland, she understood.
"I’m sure I’m not the only one who has gone through something as awful as this. People are afraid to speak out."
The issue was one of resourcing, she believed.
"The staff were all rushed off their feet, it’s not their fault. The welfare of staff is a concern."
In a statement, David Milne, St John's area operations manager for Rural Otago said:
"Hato Hone St John takes patient welfare very seriously and it is always our objective to respond as soon as possible, with immediately life-threatening calls given the highest priority.
"We are sorry we did not meet the caller’s expectations on this occasion. We have endeavoured to make contact with the patient and until such time that they respond to our requests, we are unable to comment on the specifics of this case. We encourage them to be in direct contact with us so we can adequately address their concerns.
"As with other rural communities around Aotearoa New Zealand, our ambulance operating out of Lawrence relies on the availability of volunteers. It forms part of a wider network, supported by emergency ambulances from surrounding areas, as well as Fire and Emergency New Zealand, rescue helicopters, and Primary Response in Medical Emergencies (PRIME) doctors and nurses from the area. On a typical night, the ambulance service has about six or seven ambulances with capability to respond to Lawrence, as well as rapid response units and operational managers.
"We would like to take this opportunity to remind everyone that Hato Hone St John continues to be there for all New Zealanders in an emergency. If someone is feeling generally unwell and needs health advice, they should call their regular health provider or Healthline in the first instance, and also consider alternative methods of transport to medical facilities for non-urgent conditions.
"If it is a life-threatening emergency, people should continue to dial 111 for an ambulance."
This is not the first time that wait times and resourcing issues for Hato Hone St John have been raised by the Otago Daily Times.
In April 2021, the ODT revealed that since 2019 more than 5000 southern people had had to wait more than an hour for an ambulance. That was taking an emotional toll on stretched ambulance crews.
In December 2020, Mosgiel woman Pauline Latta delivered a 51,000-signature petition to Parliament calling for St John to be fully funded.
Emergency ambulance services provided by Hato Hone St John are funded about 80% through contracts with the Ministry of Health and the Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC), with the balance made up from ambulance part-charges, third-party contracts and fundraising.
There is no cross-subsidisation from the ambulance service to other parts of Hato Hone St John.
