Tauranga and Mount Maunganui will have additional St John staff thanks to extra funding from the Ministry of Health, ACC and fundraising and commercial activities.

Tauranga will get two extra staff, while four new positions are being created at Mount Maunganui.

Extra funding will see more St John staff in Tauranga and Mount Maunganui.

The new roles are part of the increase in frontline staff numbers by 158 paid staff in 35 locations across New Zealand.

This patient-focused move will improve service response times, reduce single crewing levels and improve patient and staff safety.

As announced in February,57 positions will be funded by St John - a commitment of $4 million a year, from fundraising and commercial activities.

ACC funding will see $5.5 million fund 82 additional staff roles, while $1.3 million for MoH will fund 19 roles.

These new roles will address full crewing issues in Christchurch, Dunedin, Hamilton, Palmerston North, Napier, Mt Maunganui, Tauranga, Waimakariri and Pukekohe.

St John Chief Executive Peter Bradley says St John has done detailed analysis to understand how current ambulance resources match actual patient demand.

'This work led directly to a commitment from St John to fund additional frontline staff and to make a number of staff roster changes.

'We are now partnering with ACC and the Ministry of Health to build on this commitment - to respond to demand, to deliver a good value, sustainable service and to be able to deliver the best possible patient care.”

This new funding model also helps St John deal with current organisational priorities while at the same time more confidently prepare for the longer term.

'It's another step to achieving our ambition of right care, right time. This is also the biggest recruitment of additional ambulance staff in our history.”