North West Ambulance Service

North West Ambulance Service NHS Trust
NWAS
A rapid response vehicle (RRV) going past the Three Graces of Liverpool
Map of North West Ambulance Service's coverage
Type	NHS trust
Established	1 July 2006
Headquarters	Bolton[1]
Region served	Greater Manchester, Cheshire Merseyside, Cumbria, Lancashire and part of the High Peak district of Derbyshire
Area size	5,400 sq. miles
Population	7.5 million
Budget	£310 million (Approx)
Chair	Peter White
Chief executive	Daren Mochrie QAM [2]
Staff	5,912 (2018/19)[3]
Website	www.nwas.nhs.uk

The North West Ambulance Service NHS Trust (NWAS) is the ambulance service for North West England. It is one of ten ambulance trusts providing England with Emergency medical services, and is part of the National Health Service, receiving direct government funding for its role.

NWAS was formed on 1 July 2006, following the merger of four previous services (Cumbria Ambulance Service; Lancashire Ambulance Service; Cheshire and Mersey Ambulance Service; and Greater Manchester Ambulance Service) as part of Health Minister Lord Warner's plans to combine ambulance services.^[4]

Based in Bolton, the trust provides services to over 7 million people in Greater Manchester, Cheshire, Merseyside, Lancashire, Cumbria, and the North Western fringes of the High Peak district of Derbyshire (covering the towns of Glossop and Hadfield) in an area of 5,500 square miles (14,000 km²). NWAS provides emergency ambulance response via the 999 system, as well as operating the NHS 111 advice service for North West England.

They also operate non-emergency patient transport services (PTS) for part of the region, and in 2013/2014 carried out 1.2 million such journeys. Since 2016, the PTS in Cheshire, Warrington and Wirral has instead been carried out by West Midlands Ambulance Service.^[5]