Guernsey Ambulance and Rescue Service
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Guernsey Ambulance and Rescue Service is the ambulance and rescue service of Guernsey, the second largest of the Channel Islands, and also provides these services to other islands within the Bailiwick of Guernsey, both those directly governed, and those that are semi-autonomous dependencies of Guernsey. It is operated as a private company, but is a subsidiary of the Venerable Order of St John. Unlike ambulance services in the United Kingdom and Jersey, emergency ambulance and patient transport services are not free of charge. The service charges patients who do not have a paid annual subscription.
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The service was established in 1936, and within two years became Guernsey's only ambulance service when it took over the previous States Ambulance Service.[1] Initially operated by, and as a division of, the St John Ambulance, its staff wore the familiar St John Ambulance uniform, and used that organisation's white Maltese cross emblem, until the 1990s.[citation needed] It was the only part of the St John Ambulance Brigade to employ full-time ambulance personnel.[citation needed]
The service was taken over by a registered private company, but with the Director of St John Ambulance (Guernsey) as an ex officio Director.[citation needed] The company operates as a business, but was (until July 2012) a subsidiary of the Priory of England and the Islands of the Venerable Order of St John.[citation needed] This is the same status as that enjoyed by St John Ambulance (England and the Islands), the organisation of which Guernsey Ambulance and Rescue Service was formerly a constituent part.[citation needed]
On 1 July 2012, St John Ambulance in Guernsey ceased to be part of the Priory of England and the Isles, and was established as an autonomous Commandery of the Venerable Order of St John.[2] Thus both St John Ambulance (Guernsey) and the Guernsey Ambulance and Rescue Service (as sister organisations) remain under the umbrella of the Venerable Order of St John, but through independent local control, rather than the English Priory.
