Wanganui residents who have to use the St John Ambulance service are set to face increased fees, and within two years will be paying the same rate as users across the rest of the country.
St John says the charges are being increased because the demand for the service is also increasing and its funding was not keeping pace with that demand.
The Ministry of Health funds part of the service but St John has to recover the rest of the amount using a system of patient part-charges.
The part-charge covers medical emergencies as well as accident-related injuries that are older than 24 hours and injuries that do not meet ACC criteria.
The part-charge in the Wanganui-Manawatu region is currently $61 but that will rise to $65 on April 1 this year. Twelve months later the charge will rise again to $75, with a final $13 increment lifting the part-charge to $88.
At that level the charge will be the same across the country. Currently different regions of St John carry different part-charges.
Jaimes Woods, St John chief executive, said setting a standard part-charge across the country had to be done because the service was facing an increase in demand for its services but funding was not keeping pace with the demand.
Mr Woods said in the year ending June 30 last year St John patient numbers increased by more than 24,000 compared to the previous year - a 6.6 per cent increase.
"The part-charge represents a small percentage of the total cost of an average ambulance call out which is approximately $680," he said.
St John ambulance services were not fully government-funded. Contracts with the Ministry of Health, ACC and district health boards fund nearly 80 per cent of the service's direct operating costs.
"The shortfall is made up from community donations, fundraising, revenue from our commercial activities, the contribution of our volunteers, as well as contributions from part-charges.
"We are a charity and we rely on financial and voluntary support from the community to help fund all the services we provide to New Zealanders," he said.
Mr Woods said that of the nearly 5000 St John members involved in emergency ambulance, patient transfer services and events, nearly two- thirds of them are are volunteers.
THE CHARGES
$61 - is the current part charge
$65 - is what it moves to on April 1
$75 - is the charge from April 1, 2013
$88 - is the the charge from April 1, 2014