Kambah station was the station most often closed, with the shutters coming down five times between July 2008 and the start of April.

The information comes weeks after a damning report into the ambulance service from ACT Auditor General Tu Pham. The report found the service was falling well short of benchmarks set by the ACT Government. Other stations closed in the 10-month period include Woden on two occasions, Belconnen once and Calwell once.

Emergency Services Minister Simon Corbell said the closures only affected an estimated 2 per cent of all ambulance shifts.

He said the closures were not compromising emergency health care for Canberrans.

''I'm confident that when due to a lack of staff and it's always an unexpected lack of staff that we manage our resources so that we maintain coverage to the greatest extent possible and there's been no adverse incidents reported,'' Mr Corbell said.

A paramedic who wished to remain anonymous said the ambulance service had not been provided with sufficient resources to deal with a 68 per cent increase in demand since 2001.

The officer said on occasion ambulance service officers with a certificate three in stable patient transport would staff a station to prevent it closing and respond to the most basic jobs. But the workload for intensive care paramedics was continuing to rise with little relief.

''Not only are we responding to more cases, the care we can provide to our patients is becoming increasingly more complex and complete,'' the paramedic said.

Full report in today's Canberra Times