Expert pre-hospital care - provided by paramedics and ambulance technicians from South East Coast
Ambulance Service (SECAmb) - is saving lives every day and helping patients with serious injuries
and illnesses to avoid long-term disabilities.
SECAmb responds to more than half a million calls every year – that’s around one emergency call
every minute from across its region of Sussex, Surrey, Kent and North Hampshire.
Calls come into one of three Emergency Dispatch Centres and front-line-crews are then alerted to
respond as swiftly as possible.  The crews work from 63 ambulance stations and a host of other
sites, serving a population of 4.5 million people - any of whom could need their emergency support
at any time.
As well as responding to 999 calls from the public, SECAmb also responds to urgent calls from health
professionals and, in Kent and Sussex, provides non-emergency patient transport services.
Patients are at the heart of everything SECAmb does and the service has an excellent reputation for
spotting technologies and techniques of the future and fast-tracking them into practice.
Recent innovations to have benefited South East Coast patients include new treatments for people
suffering from strokes and heart attacks.

Around 3,000 staff are employed by SECAmb which also runs a network of Community Responders.
These are members of the public who are trained to attend certain medical emergencies – such as
patients with chest pains or breathing difficulties, or who have suffered a cardiac arrest.  Responders
are always supported by an ambulance but, because they live or work locally, they may be first to
reach a patient and administer potentially life-saving treatment.