Scottish Ambulance Service
Overview
NHS Scotland
NHS Scotland is the publicly funded healthcare system of Scotland. Although they are separate bodies the organisational separation between NHS Scotland and the other three healthcare organisations each commonly called the National Health Service in the United Kingdom tends to be hidden from its...
, and serves all of Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
. It is a Special Health Board funded directly by the Scottish Government Health Department.
The two main functions of the trust are the provision of a Paramedic
Paramedic
A paramedic is a healthcare professional that works in emergency medical situations. Paramedics provide advanced levels of care for medical emergencies and trauma. The majority of paramedics are based in the field in ambulances, emergency response vehicles, or in specialist mobile units such as...
accident and emergency
Emergency department
An emergency department , also known as accident & emergency , emergency room , emergency ward , or casualty department is a medical treatment facility specialising in acute care of patients who present without prior appointment, either by their own means or by ambulance...
service to respond to 999 calls
999 (emergency telephone number)
999 is an official emergency telephone number in a number of countries which allows the caller to contact emergency services for urgent assistance....
and the Patient Transport Service (non-Emergency Service), which performs the role of taking patients to and from their hospital appointments, discharges from Hospital and non urgent transfers
The national headquarters are in Edinburgh
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
within the grounds of the Royal Edinburgh Hospital
Royal Edinburgh Hospital
The Royal Edinburgh Hospital is a psychiatric hospital in Edinburgh, Scotland. It is operated by the Primary and Community Division of NHS Lothian...
on Tipperlin Road and there are five divisions within the Service, namely:
The Patient Transport Service carries almost 1.6 million patients every year.
