St John hopes a meeting with the Health Minister next week leads to full-funding of the country's ambulance services.
Presently St John's operations are only about 70 percent funded by the Government, leaving a $70 million shortfall each year. This year's appeal for donations begins this week.
"We're the only [country] in the first world that doesn't have a fully funded ambulance service," chief executive Peter Bradley told The AM Show on Friday.
Previous appeals and a Government funding boost last year allowed St John to double-crew all its ambulances - essential with assaults on staff on the rise.
Research last year also found more patients end up dead when ambulances only have a single crew member.
- More patients die when ambulances single-crewed - study
- Extra ambulance staff won't need to be paramedics
Before the boost, 40,000 callouts a year were attended by a paramedic working alone.
"We know [Health Minister] David Clark is a big supporter of St John, and we look forward to having a really good conversation with him next week," said Mr Bradley.
Of the $70 million annual shortfall, only about $20 million of that is recovered by charging patients.
Last year's funding boost didn't go all the way to fully funding the service because then-Prime Minister Bill English said St John and other services were "not asking for full funding".
"I think it's part of the ethos of the ambulance services," he said in May. "They've got a volunteer aspect to them. They've always has good community support."
Paramedics are paid between $60,000 and $70,000 a year to deal with some "very dangerous" circumstances, Mr Bradley said.
"Yesterday I presented a commendation to one of our staff in Taranaki who spent six hours in the bush performing life-saving care to a patient and had to transport him down a river… Dropped in the bush, supported by a helicopter crew and other staff after the event. Great job."
Newshub.
