Calls for the Government to increase funding for emergency ambulance services are growing louder.
A petition was delivered to Parliament on Thursday morning, by Mosgiel woman Pauline Latta, who is worried about ambulance wait times in rural communities.
Latta's son has severe food allergies that cause anaphylaxis - where his throat closes over.
The petition garnered more than 50,000 signatures.
"We're very passionate about this issue," Latta said.
"It's the scariest thing in the world to have to wait for an ambulance for your child and you know it's a life and death situation."
The Government funds about 72 percent of the emergency ambulance service - the rest they have to fundraise. St John wants more funding and says those on the frontline are desperate.
"We get fatigued - we feel the strain of the system," intensive care paramedic Johnny Mulheron told Newshub.
St John says callouts are increasing by 3 percent every year but the number of ambulances on the road is not.
"We know in the last 12 months alone, 7000 patients that are quite sick were waiting over an hour for an ambulance," Mulheron said. "That's a lot of suffering."
St John's four-year funding deal with the Government ends in July 2021 and while the Government is promising it's committed to the ambulance service, it's not promising to cough up the extra $80 million a year St John is calling for.
"We've put in additional money," Health Minister Andrew Little said. "Not just for COVID-19, which is one tranche of money they got this year, but two or three other tranches of money. "They've got a lot of extra money."
St John faced criticism recently that it hadn't focused enough on controlling its costs to live within its means - something the organisation disputes.
"We've been using our cash reserves to help live within our means," St John chief executive Peter Bradley said. "They've now got to a level we can no longer do that, so hence the need for this funding change once and for all."
