EVER wanted to take a look inside an ambulance, see the chemical suits hero medics don during major incidents and get a sense of what goes on behind the scenes during a frantic 999 call?

Now you can, thanks to a new virtual tour of facilities used by Gwent life-savers who rush to the scenes of shootings, fires and road accidents.

For the first time, the Welsh Ambulance Service has released exclusive 360-degree images that help the public better understand the role of frontline crews and the life-saving equipment they use.

Web users can take a look round a busy clinical contact centre, where 999 calls are received and vehicles are dispatched.

They can also look at the equipment the professionals use to tackle industrial accidents and natural disasters, as well as chemical, biological, radioactive, nuclear and terrorist incidents. It also lets you enter a state-of-the-art vehicle used by medics based at hubs including the area ambulance centre in Bridgend, where the revered Hazardous Area Response Team – HART for short – is situated.

Fiona Maclean, community involvement and engagement manager with the Welsh Ambulance Service, said: “We want to demystify the Welsh Ambulance Service, and give the public a real insight into what we are about. Our services are tailor-made for each community’s differing environmental and medical needs, from rapid response cars to emergency ambulances, to paramedics on the road and nurses in our clinical contact centres."

“These tours prove just how clinically advanced we have become as a service.”

The tours were developed to coincide with NHS Wales’ Choose Well campaign, which encourages the public to rethink about what kind of medical attention they need when they are ill or injured.

To take a tour log on to www.ambulance.wales.nhs.uk