New South Wales Ambulance

NSW Ambulance, previously the Ambulance Service of NSW, is an agency of NSW Health and the statutory provider of pre-hospital emergency care and ambulance services in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Established pursuant to the and operating within the , the service provides clinical care and health related transport services to over 7.9 million people in New South Wales (NSW), across an area of . NSW Ambulance employs more than 6,100 staff including 4,952 paramedics who operate over 1,600 response vehicles from 220 locations across the state. The service responds to around 1.1 million calls a year, with an average response time of 7.47 minutes to 1A emergencies (cardiac or respiratory arrests), against a target of 10 minutes. The first recognised ambulance service in New South Wales, known as the Civil Ambulance and Transport Brigade, commenced operations on April 1, 1895. Their first ambulance station was a borrowed police station in Railway Square, Sydney, which was staffed by two permanent officers. At the time, patients were transported on hand-held stretchers and hand-litters. As demand grew, so did the service and they were soon transporting over 2,000 patients a year. In 1905, they were reorganised into the Ambulance Transport Corps. In 1910, they opened their first station on the west side of the city, occupying the former parcels office at Summer Hill Railway Station. In 1912, the first motorised ambulance entered service with the Corps, followed by two ambulance trams in 1915. The service was then renamed the NSW Ambulance Transport Service Board in 1921, with further technological advances such as the installation of radios in ambulance vehicles by the mid 1930s. By 1937, the Central District ambulance fleet had grown to 15 vehicles, with many others operating in districts across the state. In 1958, the first fibreglass body ambulances entered service, marking a significant advancement in the design towards the modern ambulance.