The Tasmanian Ambulance Service (TAS) is a statutory service of the Hospital and Ambulance Division of the Department of Health and Human Services.
TAS provides emergency ambulance care, rescue and transport services and a non-emergency patient transport service through a network of 44 stations. Tasmania has a wide dispersal of highly qualified paramedics throughout urban and rural areas supported by volunteer officers who work alongside paramedics in 14 locations, as well as from 23 wholly volunteer stations.
The service works closely with acute care hospitals and health facilities and interstate and international groups and organisations such as Tasmania Police, Search & Rescue Division, Fire Services and the Royal Flying Doctor Service.
TAS operates with a fleet of approximately 70 ambulance vehicles. It has a combined staff of approximately 600, made up of approximately 450 volunteer ambulance officers and 150 salaried staff.
During 2003-04, ambulance services responded to 53,000 incidents and transported 32,000 patients (an incident is an event that results in a demand for ambulance resources to respond). Of those incidents:
- 51% were emergency incidents,
- 28% were urgent incidents, and
- 21% were non-emergency incidents.
(The number of patients transported in 2003-04 is under-counted due to an extended period of industrial action resulting in loss of data.)
(Source: Report on Government Services 2005; and the Department of Health and Human Services website: http://www.dhhs.tas.gov.au/)
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