About Us

We are the only emergency ambulance service in greater Wellington and the Wairarapa, and the only ones in the country who are free.

Get Involved

We are the only emergency ambulance service in greater Wellington and the Wairarapa, and the only ones in the country who are free.

What we do

Our work

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How we work

Wellington Free Ambulance is the only emergency ambulance service in Wellington and the Wairarapa, and the only ones in the country who are free. We look after 1 in 10 of your friends and family every year, ensuring we provide the best possible care to our patients.

Three paramedics standing in front of an ambulance

We run a 24/7 emergency paramedic service, covering the Kāpiti Coast as far north as Peka Peka Road, Wairarapa and all of Wellington. 

We are the only ambulance service in the region, and we are the only ones in New Zealand who are free. 

Our clinical and operations teams work hand in hand to ensure our people work to the highest level of clinical practice. Visit our Clinical Care page to find out more.

Our headquarters is based in Thorndon and we have nine ambulance stations located around the region.

Last year we responded to more than 235,000 calls and attended almost 54,000 incidents. See our Impact Report 2022 - 2023 for more information.

Because we never know where the next emergency might happen, our ambulances crews are constantly on the move to ensure they're in the best position to respond whenever and wherever they're needed.

Most of our work is for people with medical conditions that need some form of urgent care, but not necessarily an ambulance or the emergency department. That is why we have paramedics working in the community, and clinical paramedic advisors and nurses helping you over the phone.

Although we receive some funding from government, the rest we make up through other means, including fundraising to the tune of $7 million every year. We are extremely lucky to have such an amazingly supportive community with generous people and businesses who believe in our work. 

To find out about all parts of our service visit our what we do page.

What happens when I call 111?

When you call 111 and ask for an ambulance, we will work out the best help for you

Two call takers in call centre smiling at camera

Should I call 111?

If you have a medical emergency call 111. Do not hesitate for a moment – just call and let our professionals work out the best way to help.

For health advice anytime call Healthline on 0800 611 116.

When you call us

When you call 111, the first thing we do is ask you questions to work out where you are and what help you need.

We will ask you:

  • Your street number, street name and suburb
  • The phone number you are calling from
  • What is happening for you
  • If you are helping someone else we will ask you if they are conscious and breathing.

We repeat some questions because we need to be sure we know where you are.  We must be certain that we understand the nature of your emergency and what you need from us.

Help over the phone

If you have a health worry that we know from talking with you is not life threatening in any way, we will have one of our registered nurses call you back to talk through your symptoms and the best thing to do.  They might help you make an appointment with your GP, ask you about your medication, or suggest good options for pain relief.  If they are worried that things could get more serious, they will get extra advice from our on-site paramedic. If they think you need a visit from a paramedic or an ambulance, they will send one to you.

Last year we answered over 235,000 calls for help.

Care in the community

If your condition is serious and urgent, but not life threatening we send a paramedic as soon as we can.  They might be one of our community based (Urgent Community Care or UCC) paramedics who arrive in a car, or it might be a team in an ambulance.

Our UCC paramedics are trained to assess your condition and make professional clinical decisions about the best course of action. They may be able to treat you safely at home, especially if you have people around to help and good care in the community. They might transport you to a medical centre or hospital.

Lights and sirens emergency

If your situation is life threatening we are sending out closest and fastest resource to you under lights and sirens. We work with Fire and Emergency New Zealand, Life Flight, and community first responders to get to you as quickly as possible. Our paramedic teams will treat you, care for you, and get you to the best place for specialist treatment.

Last year we responded to almost 54,000 emergencies.

When I have to wait? 

Sometimes there can be a delay in getting to you, especially if we are dealing with a high numbers of life-threatening incidents like cardiac arrest and serious trauma across our region.

Even if we are busy, we care about you and want you to call 111 when you have a medical emergency.

If we need to come and see you, but there is going to be a delay, one of our Clinical Paramedic Advisors in our Clinical Communications Centre will call you back to see how you are doing, and to see if your situation has changed.

If things are getting more serious, they will reassess the priority of your call to ensure you get the care you more quickly. We will do our best to keep you informed about how long the wait will be.

Working out priorities

The 111 call taker works out a person’s condition using a medical priority dispatch system. This system is used internationally and is the clinically proven way of getting the right help, to the right people, in the best possible time.

The more life-threatening the condition, the greater priority we give your call. That means sending the closest help to you, right now, under lights and sirens.

If it’s a bad sprain, break or something painful but not life threatening, an ambulance might be the best help, but it could take longer to arrive if we have a number of life-threatening things on the go at the time.

If we are delayed we will call you back to find out if anything has changed, so please keep a watch on the situation and your phone with you. If it’s something minor, we have registered nurses who will call you back and give you advice over the phone.

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You Rights & More info

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Your Rights

As our patient, and under the Health and Disability Commissioner’s Code of Rights, you have the right to:

  • Be treated with respect
  • Be fully informed
  • Freedom from discrimination, coercion, harassment and exploitation
  • dignity and independence
  • Services of an appropriate standard
  • Effective communication
  • Be fully informed
  • Make an informed choice and give informed consent
  • Support
  • Respect of teaching or research
  • Complain

If we don’t respect these, let us know and we’ll do everything we can to put it right.


Support in the process

If you need support or help with making a complaint, you can contact the office of the Health and Disability Commissioner and ask for an advocate.

www.hdc.org.nz
0800 555 050

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