St John ambulance is calling for more volunteers in rural Canterbury as a spike in callout numbers puts strain on workers.
The organisation says the number of rural callouts has grown 44% over the past five years and recent damaging earthquakes have resulted in many people moving to outer towns.
Canterbury district operations manager Peter Cain says St John is monitoring and managing resources and a new operational structure is in place to deal specifically with the increased workload.
Mr Cain says the key focus areas are Mid and North Canterbury and the Selwyn district.
St John in Canterbury has 110 paid staff and about 600 volunteers.
