For the first time in our Valley, an emergency services base will be staffed 24 hours a day.

Ambulance NSW has said "these paramedics are a considerable enhancement to the previous system of on-duty day rosters that were supplemented by on-call rosters overnight whereby paramedics were required to respond from their homes".

The freshly reelected State Government announced these staffing increases in June as part of its $1 billion funding proposal to resource ambulance services across NSW.

The Valley's new recruits are 12 of the 221 new paramedics to be integrated into the system this financial year since the promise was made last year to increase staff numbers by 750 over the coming years.

The staff increase is an effort "to improve response times, reduce paramedic fatigue and support safety".

So far, so good.

Nambucca Heads-based paramedic Paul Cue said he welcomes the additions to ambulance crews in the Valley, and believes no longer having to be on-call at night will help with fatigue.

"Now I will do my 12-hour shift, clock off, and they can't contact me until morning," he said.

"I'm going to feel a lot better, be a lot healthier and feel more refreshed before each shift."

Treasurer Dominic Perrottet made a point of focussing on ambulance response times in his budget speech, saying he wanted NSW to have the best in the country.

"Every minute and every second is precious and can make a difference...and that's why we're making this investment," he said.

Currently, ambulance response times in NSW average more than 20 minutes - the second longest wait for patients after Tasmania.

But Paul said that in spite of the sudden influx of personnel, there'll still only be two paramedics rostered on at each station at any one point during the day or night.

So, despite the Nambucca Heads Station housing three ambulances, only one will be operational at any time.

Ambulance NSW did not provide us with a direct response when we questioned them about this.

"We wanted an extra car deployed between 10am and 10pm - our busiest period.

"This is the biggest staff increase we've had in forever which is why we were so adamant about getting it right."

But an attempt by the Health Services Union to challenge the rostering system in the Industrial Relations Commission proved futile.

Paul said the staff at his station respond to 1.8 jobs on average per night.

"People don't tend to ring us when they're asleep," he said.

During the day, however, they regularly face the situation of two to three calls coming into the area at once, according to Paul.

He said it happens on a weekly basis that someone's health is compromised because they are having to wait for ambulances to arrive from neighbouring Valleys.

"I have to live in this town. People often come up to me on the street to tell me about their mother who had to wait for an ambulance to arrive from South West Rocks while she was having a heart attack," he said.

"What do I say to that? It's unacceptable in this day and age."

He said the new resources are squarely designed to reduce overtime and on-call callouts.

"We can't really rebut that. They believe that all these jobs on-call after a 38-hour working week is killing us, essentially," he said.

"But if you're going to increase your staffing by six, you'd hope it increases your capability on the ground...but it won't."

Paul said when he first started work in the Nambucca Valley 19 years ago, there were two paramedics and one ambulance on during the day, and the same at night.

"Nothing has changed. But the workload has increased," he said.

There are around 3000 more people living in the Valley now, and two new nursing homes have been built.

"Plus there's a drug epidemic that has made the situation worse. 19 years ago the biggest drug problems involved alcohol and marijuana. Now you've got a lot of amphetamines - ice - and that not only increases our workload, but our safety concerns," he said.

Paul believes the rostering system actually has the potential to add to their daily workload, while staff are still being rolled out across the state.

Stations at Bellingen and Urunga are still on-call. Paul believes that with the desire to limit overtime hours on paper, his on-duty team will be tasked northwards to compensate.

"And when the hospital is finished, I've got no doubt we're going to be spending a lot of time going up and down the highway," he said.

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