<P> NHS ambulance services trusts are organisations which provide ambulance services within the English National Health Service . </P> <P> Following consultation, on 1 July 2006 the number of ambulance trusts fell from 29 to 13 . The reduction can be seen as part of a trend dating back to 1974, when English local authorities ceased to be providers of ambulance services . This round of reductions in the number of trusts originated in the June 2005 report "Taking healthcare to the Patient", authored by Peter Bradley, Chief Executive of the London Ambulance Service, for the Department of Health . Most of the trusts followed government office regional boundaries . Exceptions include Staffordshire Ambulance Service (which had a temporary reprieve), the Isle of Wight (where provision remained with the island's primary care trust), South East Coast Ambulance Service, and South Central Ambulance Service . </P> <P> The National Ambulance Resilience Unit, which provides support to all the English ambulance trusts, was established in summer 2011 and is based in Oldbury, West Midlands . </P>

When did the ambulance service become part of the nhs