Emergency medical services in New Zealand (more commonly known as Ambulance) are provided by the Order of St John, except in the Greater Wellington region where Wellington Free Ambulance provides these services. Both have a history of long service to their communities, St John since 1885 and Free beginning in 1927, traditionally having a volunteer base, however the vast majority of response work is undertaken by paid career Paramedics.[1] Strategic leadership of the sector is provided by NASO (the National Ambulance Sector Office) which is a unit within the Ministry of Health responsible for coordinating the purchasing and funding of services on behalf of the Ministry and the Accident Compensation Corporation.
Funding occurs by means of billing part-charges for medical callouts (except Wellington Free) and charitable funding such as donations, bequests and corporate sponsorship to supplement Government funding. In recent years, the government has begun to examine more sustainable funding for ambulance services.[2] however there is still significant exertion within the sector that the level of funding provided falls far below what is required to cover the actual cost of service delivery [3][4]
FOUNZ was invoked but never defined (see the help page).HSC was invoked but never defined (see the help page).