National Ambulance Service
The mission of the Irish National Ambulance Service is to serve the needs of patients and the public as part of an integrated health system, through the provision of high quality, safe and patient-centred services.
What does the National Ambulance Service do?
NAS staff start their treatment of patients as soon as the 999 call is made to the NEOC, followed by the safe treatment at the scene, transportation and handover of the patient to the clinical team at the receiving hospital or emergency department. Patients may receive care from EMTs, paramedics, advanced paramedics, and aeromedical crews, depending on the nature of the call and the patient’s condition.
National Ambulance Service Divisions
Paramedic Unit
NAS Paramedic Units are the primary assets with the ambulance service. These ambulances are staffed by Paramedics and Advanced Paramedics, and respond to all pre-hospital emergency care requests made to the National Emergency Operations Centre (NEOC), also known as Ambulance Control. Paramedic Units can be deployed on calls ranging from medical issues such as illness or infection to trauma calls like motor vehicle collisions, falls, and workplace accidents.
Also part of this Unit is the Rapid Response Vehicles fleet, Hyundai i40s and Tucsons, designed to do everything a regular ambulance can do, except transport a patient. Paramedics and APs assigned to RRV duty can get to calls quicker than road ambulances, or respond to manpower requests by ambulances already at a scene.
Intermediate Care Unit
Intermediate Care Vehicles are staffed by Intermediate Care Operatives (EMTs) ICVs serve the purpose of inter-facility transfers between hospitals as well as facilitating hospital discharges of non-critical patients. An example of calls that ICVs deal with include transferring patients from care homes to a primary hospital for surgical appointments, or transferring a patient from one primary hospital to another where the receiving hospital is the more appropriate care facility. In times of great pressure, ICVs may be deployed by NEOC to respond to Alpha and Omega level calls, which are non-serious/life threatening, minor injury or illness calls.
Critical Care Retrieval Service
The NAS-CCRS provide critical care retrieval/transport for seriously ill Adults, Children and Infants in Ireland. This involves the timely retrieval/transfer of critically ill or severely injured patients by an appropriately trained and skilled team of healthcare professionals, “getting the right patient to the right care in the right time by the right people” (NASCCRS, 2022).
CCRS is divided into three sections; the National Neonatal Transport Programme (patients up to 6 weeks old), the Irish Paediatric Acute Transport Service (patients from 4 weeks to 16 years old) and the Mobile Intensive Care Ambulance Service (critically ill patients). These units are staffed by specialist doctors, nurses and NAS Critical Care Operatives, and are deployed from bases in Dublin, Cork and Galway as requested.
Emergency Aeromedical Service
In Ireland, there are three air ambulance services; NAS/DF Emergency Aeromedical Service (Custume Barracks, Athlone), the Irish Coast Guard (Waterford, Sligo, Shannon and Dublin Airports), and the NAS/ICRR Community Rapid Response programme (Rathcoole Aerodrome, Cork). These services operate a fleet of various aircraft to provide air ambulance support to the National Ambulance Service.
These services are called upon by NAS ambulance crews when a patient is in need of definitive care in a hospital and that to transport by road would take too long. Air ambulances can be called to road traffic accidents, farming accidents or where a patient has been injured in mountainous areas.
How do I Join?
You can start your application process by clicking the button below. There you can read through our joining requirements and check if you're eligible to join our community.
To become a NAS member on SERPC, an applicant must be in possession of, at a minimum, an in-date PHECC First Aid Responder (FAR) AND Community First Responder – Advanced (CFR-A), be a PHECC registered practitioner, or be a registered medical practitioner.
Allowances will be made for applicants with international EMT certifications or higher. This is a requirement to maintain accurate and realistic conduct during patrols when dealing with medical emergencies
