Northern Ireland Ambulance Service
Encyclopedia
The Northern Ireland Ambulance Service (NIAS) is the ambulance
service that serves the whole of Northern Ireland
. As with other ambulance services in the United Kingdom
, it does not charge its patients directly for its services, but instead receives funding through general taxation. It responds to medical emergencies in Northern Ireland with the 270 plus ambulances at its disposal.
The Service employs approximately 850 staff based across 32 stations & sub-stations, 2 Control Centres and a Regional Training Centre. It responds to approximately 120,000 emergency (999) calls per year with a combination of traditional emergency ambulances with two crew members, and Rapid Response Vehicles (RRVs) crewed by a single paramedic.
In addition to the emergency service, NIAS has a fleet of Patient Care Service vehicles which are used for more routine patient transport to/from hospital, inter-hospital patient transfers and increasingly for GP urgent admissions to hospital. Within the Patient Care Service there are both single-crewed 'sitting case' (minibus) vehicles as well as double-crewed 'intermediate care vehicles' (ICV) which carry a stretcher.
Ambulance
An ambulance is a vehicle for transportation of sick or injured people to, from or between places of treatment for an illness or injury, and in some instances will also provide out of hospital medical care to the patient...
service that serves the whole of Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...
. As with other ambulance services in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, it does not charge its patients directly for its services, but instead receives funding through general taxation. It responds to medical emergencies in Northern Ireland with the 270 plus ambulances at its disposal.
The Service employs approximately 850 staff based across 32 stations & sub-stations, 2 Control Centres and a Regional Training Centre. It responds to approximately 120,000 emergency (999) calls per year with a combination of traditional emergency ambulances with two crew members, and Rapid Response Vehicles (RRVs) crewed by a single paramedic.
In addition to the emergency service, NIAS has a fleet of Patient Care Service vehicles which are used for more routine patient transport to/from hospital, inter-hospital patient transfers and increasingly for GP urgent admissions to hospital. Within the Patient Care Service there are both single-crewed 'sitting case' (minibus) vehicles as well as double-crewed 'intermediate care vehicles' (ICV) which carry a stretcher.
History
The Northern Ireland Ambulance Service was formed on 1 April 1995 through the amalgamation of its 4 predecessors. Its full title is the Northern Ireland Ambulance Service Health and Social Care Trust.See also
- Emergency medical services in the United Kingdom
- National Health ServiceNational Health ServiceThe National Health Service is the shared name of three of the four publicly funded healthcare systems in the United Kingdom. They provide a comprehensive range of health services, the vast majority of which are free at the point of use to residents of the United Kingdom...
- List of Government departments and agencies in Northern Ireland
- HSE National Ambulance ServiceHSE National Ambulance ServiceThe HSE National Ambulance Service is the statutory public ambulance service in the Republic of Ireland. The service is operated by the National Hospitals Office of the Health Service Executive, the Irish national healthcare authority.- History :...
- Ambulance service in the Republic of Ireland