St John is reporting “significant delays on non-urgent calls” following strike action by some staff.

Members of First Union and the New Zealand Ambulance Association (NZAA) division of the Amalgamated Workers Union New Zealand are withdrawing labour for the first four hours of their shifts on 20 August and 24 August.

A St John spokesman said, “Patient safety and wellbeing remain our top priority, and we have plans in place to provide emergency care during this time and minimise likely delays.”

“We are already seeing significant delays on non-urgent calls, and we remind the public to only call 111 for an ambulance in a medical emergency. If your call is not immediately life-threatening, there may be a delay, or you may be asked to self-transport to hospital or a medical clinic if it is considered safe for you to do so.”

Ambulance Association secretary Mark Quin said ambulance workers were extremely disappointed to be taking this unprecedented action but were fed up with the lack of progress after 19 months of negotiations.

“Never before have I seen staff so united and so angry at St John for letting it get to this,” he said.

St John has said it cannot afford to increase pay without more government funding.