Ambulance Operations
Ambulance operations is our core business, responsible for the delivery of front line pre-hospital care, medical retrieval and health related transport. A team of high skilled paramedics, intensive care paramedics and patient transport officers provide both emergency and non-emergency care to NSW residents and are supported by a number of special operational units including:
- Rapid Response – Rapid response vehicles are fluidly deployed according to demand and provide early patient intervention and reduced response times.
- Snow Operations – A team of paramedics respond to all types of emergencies using oversnow vehicles during the winter season.
- Rescue – Paramedics are trained in all forms of rescue including road accident, vertical, confined space, trench, industrial, technical and domestic scenarios.
- Special Casualty Access Teams (SCAT) – the roles of SCAT are varied and include: support of rescue squads, police units and HAZMAT; bushfires and urban search and rescue; working on helicopters and treating patients in canyons, mines and on cliff ledges.
- Aeromedical Services – Fixed wing aircraft provide long distance transport while ensuring the continuation of patient’s medical care between referring and receiving hospitals. Helicopter retrieval incorporates both 24 hour pre-hospital rescue and interhospital transfer services using one of nine helicopters across the State.
- Counter Disaster Unit - Involves specialised NSW Health and Ambulance personnel working together to address aspects of health disaster planning and response, including responding to terrorism events.
The State is divided into four divisions, each responsible for service delivery, and administrative and business support functions. In addition to four geographic divisions, the Aeromedical and Retrieval Services Division coordinates fixed wing and rotary wing services through the Aeromedical Retrieval Unit and Aeromedical Operation Centre. Each division is supported by an operations centre, which is responsible for receiving all emergency triple 000 telephone requests for ambulance services from the public, allied health care providers and other emergency services. Operations Centres coordinate the movement of ambulances within their division to meet the needs of the community.
In addition to emergency operations, the Patient Transport Service (PTS) is the non-emergency transport section of Ambulance. The role of the Patient Transport Officer (PTO) is to transport patients who require no active monitoring and whose condition is of a non-life threatening nature. Transporting these patients allows the front line ambulance crews to be available to respond to potential life threatening medical and/or trauma incidents quicker. The introduction of the Patient Transport Service also allows for all non-emergency patients to be transported more quickly.
During 2006/07 Ambulance provided in excess of 1 million responses (both emergency and non-emergency) to the NSW community. This represents an increase of nearly 53,000 responses or 5.4 per cent compared to 2005/06.