A mother was forced to perform CPR on her baby boy, who later died at Tokoroa hospital, after an ambulance arrived with just one officer.
A family member, who did not want to be identified, told the Waikato Times the ambulance was called on Monday morning when the
baby had difficulty breathing.
When the ambulance arrived there with only one officer, so the baby's mother performed CPR while the woman officer drove, she said.
"I would have thought the ambulance officer would do that," she said.
"Why even bother calling the ambulance if the mother is going to do CPR?"
St John Ambulance regional operations manager Brent Nielsen said a single-crewed ambulance was sent to the emergency, and a call was placed to a back-up officer who was immediately sent to the scene.
It took nine minutes between emergency staff receiving the call and the ambulance leaving the baby's house to take him to Tokoroa Hospital, 500m away.
Mr Nielsen said the second officer met the ambulance "moments after it had left the scene" and took over the driving, leaving the first officer free to resume CPR on the baby until arriving at the hospital two minutes later.
St John's position on emergency responses was that all ambulances should be double crewed wherever possible.
"Single crewing is never a matter of choice it is a matter of available resources," Mr Nielsen said.
It was better to send a single-crewed vehicle than no vehicle at all, or to wait for one to come from further away.
The incident occurred amid growing concerns over single-crewed ambulances. Last year a union representing ambulance officers threatened to impose a ban on single-crewing saying the practice was a risk to the officers and patients.
- NZPA
