Ambulance crews in Oxfordshire will take a trip down memory lane next month to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the National Health Service.

And South Central Ambulance Service is appealing for people who may have vintage ambulance equipment and uniforms or historic stories to help mark the occasion.

SCAS, which also reaches its own second anniversary on July 1, wants to celebrate the lifesaving work of thousands of staff over the years - and highlight the changes that have taken place since 1948.

David Williams, SCAS head of operations in Oxfordshire, said: "We want to hear stories from people in Oxfordshire who have been helped by the service from the 1940s right up to the present day.

"We would also love to find any uniforms and equipment, so that we can contrast it with what we use today.

"The service has made tremendous advances since its first years."

South Central Ambulance Service NHS Trust was established following the merger of ambulance trusts in Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Hampshire and Oxfordshire.

It covers a population of more than four million and handles more than 340,000 emergency calls a year.

John Willis, a divisional manager and paramedic based on the Churchill Hospital site in Headington, Oxford, has served Oxfordshire for more than 30 years.

The 62-year-old from Arncott, near Bicester, started as a trainee ambulance technician in 1976, when ambulances in the county were still black. He qualified a year later and, in the early 1980s, trained to be a paramedic.

He told the Oxford Mail: "I was one of the first paramedics in Oxfordshire - after Brighton we were the second ambulance service to use paramedic skills.

"The service has changed an awful lot and all for the better - there's no doubt about that. The treatment we can give patients is far more advanced than when we first started.

"Staff are so much better trained now and the vehicles have obviously improved beyond recognition. They are so sophisticated and the equipment they carry is brilliant."

He also believed that despite widespread concern about the creation of South Central two years ago, it had been a positive move.

He said: "It was a cultural change for people - no longer were we the local ambulance service. When the merger took place Oxfordshire was the top performing ambulance service in the country. Now we are simply part of a bigger service."

People with stories, photos or historic equipment and ideas about how to celebrate July 5 - the date Health Minister Aneurin Bevan unveiled the NHS in Manchester in 1948 - should call Neville Wade on 01442 866656.

FACTFILE

Prior to the NHS Acts of 1946/7 there was no statutory ambulance service.

The first recorded use of an ambulance, or transport with the specific role of moving patients in emergencies, was by Queen Isabella of Spain in 1487. Closer to home, the 999 emergency number was introduced in 1937 in the London area and later nationally. Ambulances were initially staffed by volunteers and transported patients to hospital. In 1964, the Millar Report recommended the service become involved with treatment and since then the service has delivered increasingly complex clinical care. In 1971, it was decided patients needed yet more immediate treatment, provided by trained individuals.

The first qualified paramedic in the UK was John Alfred Clarke, of Boscombe, in 1972.