Paramedics with Ambulance New Brunswick held a protest at the company's headquarters in Moncton Thursday, saying they're concerned about the way ambulances are deployed across the province.

Dozens of paramedics blew whistles and waved union flags.

Trent Piercy, a Fredericton-based paramedic, said the company regularly uses ambulances from the quieter rural areas to cover the busier, urban ones, leaving rural communities unprotected.

"Southern New Brunswick, you know, Saint John is relying on the rural areas to keep their deployment going," he said. "They're pulling in rural units to cover off in the city of Saint John."

'We've had incidents throughout this province where they had to wait 45, 50 minutes for an ambulance to get to them.'—Judy Astle, paramedic

Ambulance New Brunswick released a statement saying it delivers proper service 90 per cent of the time, as mandated by the province.

But Judy Astle, a paramedic in Boiestown, said the real figures show a different picture.

"We've had incidents throughout this province where they had to wait 45, 50 minutes for an ambulance to get to them," she said.

Vaughn Snider, who had a heart attack in Hillsborough last spring, agrees.

"They had said 20 or 22 minutes they could reach anywhere and we were well over half an hour before they came here," he said, adding that he's heard of even longer response times in his village.

The paramedics say they want to provide better coverage and hope the issue will be discussed during upcoming contract negotiations.