Full description
The Ambulance Service of NSW was established as a statewide health service on 17 March 2006 under the Health Services Act 1997. (1) Staff of the former Ambulance Service of New South Wales became staff of the Ambulance Service of NSW under the 1997 Act. (2)
The function of providing ambulance services was transferred to the Director General. The Director General determined that the Health Administration Corporation may exercise such functions. (3) Hence the Ambulance Services of NSW was also a corporation under delegation by section 21 of the Health Administration Corporation Act 1982. (4)
The Ambulance Service of NSW comprises those staff of the NSW Health Service who are employed primarily in connection with the provision of ambulance services under Chapter 5A of the Health Services Act 1997. The Chief Executive may be appointed by the Health Secretary. (5) The NSW public health system includes the Health Secretary in respect of the provision of ambulance services. (6)
The Health Secretary has, on behalf of the Crown, the following functions:
(a) to provide, conduct, operate and maintain ambulance services,
(b) to co-operate with or provide assistance to any person or organisation for the purposes of providing, conducting, operating and maintaining ambulance services,
(c) in connection with ambulance services referred to in paragraph (a), to protect persons from injury or death, whether or not those persons are sick or injured,
(d) to adopt and implement all necessary measures (including systems of planning, management and quality control) as will best ensure the efficient and economic operation and use of resources in the provision of ambulance services,
(e) to consult and co-operate with individuals and organisations (including voluntary agencies, private agencies and public or local authorities) concerned with the provision of ambulance services,
(f) to co-ordinate and plan the future development of ambulance services, and towards that end, to support, encourage and facilitate the organisation of community involvement in the planning of those services,
(g) to set objectives and determine priorities in relation to the provision of ambulance services and to monitor whether those objectives are achieved,
(h) to achieve and maintain adequate standards of ambulance services,
(i) to make available to the public reports, information and advice concerning the operation of ambulance services,
(j) to provide assistance to, or co-operate with, any person or organisation in connection with the depiction of ambulance services in the news or entertainment media,
(k) to exercise such other functions in relation to ambulance services as may be conferred or imposed on the Health Secretary by the regulations. (7)
On 5 October 2011 the Department of Health became the NSW Ministry of Health. (8) By July 2013 the Ambulance Service of NSW was also known as NSW Ambulance, following the December 2012 Reform Plan for NSW Ambulance and the appointment of a new Chief Executive. (9) There was no change to the name in the Health Services Act 1997.
The function of NSW Ambulance was to deliver mobile health services and provide high quality clinical care, compassion, relief of pain and suffering, rescue and retrieval services to the people of NSW with emergency and medical needs. The service collaborated with the broader health system and the NSW community, to proactively develop safety and prevention programs designed to reduce mortality and morbidity and improve health outcomes. (10)
Strategic priorities for the service included: (i) a fit-for-purpose, sustainable organisation that supports our people to be engaged; (ii) responding to emergency calls in order to provide a health pathway that best meets patient needs in a clinically appropriate time-frame; (iii) creating a better connected referral system, to continue to tailor our care in partnership with our communities and establish shared data to enable early access to patient information; and (iv) embedding a multi-disciplinary system of emergency medical services in a managed, structured manner. (11)
Endnotes
1. Health Services Act 1997 (Act No.154, 1997) s.67A, as amended on 17 March 2006 by the Public Sector Employment Legislation Amendment Act 2006 (Act No.2, 2006) Schedule 2 [26].
2. Health Services Act 1997, Schedule 7 clause 69.
3. NSW Department of Health Annual Report, 2006-2007, p.123.
4. Health Administration Act 1982 (Act No.135, 1982) s.21.
5. Health Services Act 1997 s.67A.
6. Health Services Act 1997 s.6(d).
7. Health Services Act 1997 s.67B.
8. NSW Health, Annual Report, 2011-2012, pp.2, 6.
9. NSW Health, Annual Report, 2012-2013, p.142.
10. NSW Ambulance website, About-us, https://www.ambulance.nsw.gov.au/about-us/, (accessed 15 November 2022).
11. Ibid.
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