Using the Mini as an emergency vehicle is nothing new. In the 60s the Mini Cooper was used as a Police car with great effect. The Mini Cooper Police Car was light, nimble and faster than many other vehicles of the time.

While I don’t know of any local authorities using the MINI as a police car, there are six NHS authorities that have MINI Cooper S ambulances.

Portsmouth Mini Ambulance

This unit, seen at the National Mini Cooper Day at Beaulieu on 10 June is from Portsmouth. The vehicle itself and ongoing maintenance was provided by Snows Portsmouth MINI, while the modifications, equipment and ambulance staff are paid for by Portsmouth pubs and clubs.

Portsmouth Mini Ambulance

Mechanically the MINI Cooper S is standard, except for an uprated alternator to run all the lights and radio equipment and uprated suspension to cope with the extra weight. These modifications were completed by Snows when the conversion was under way.

Portsmouth Mini Ambulance You can see from the photo above that the car has a divider between driver and passenger. This is so that all the controls can be operated by the driver. The car has a dual role. It is fully capable of completing a Fast Response Unit Role, getting to an emergency before a passenger carrying ambulance. Providing the first emergency care, the FRUs can give the patients a more fighting chance of survival.

The MINI Ambulance’s main role however is education and awareness. The ambulance will attend the pubs and clubs giving basic awareness training to staff and public. The driver told me that this was a great part of his job. I wonder if the public agrees though. When I was speaking to him I noticed that his right arm was in a support cast!

Portsmouth Mini Ambulance As you can see from the images, the car has been decked out in reflective material and has a total of ten blue flashing lights distributed around the vehicle. The headlamps and fog lamps also strobe to a timed program and the ambulance also has the two-tone sirens fitted under the bonnet. I asked if they’d set the two-tones off but was told that they’d already had some complaints as the siren was that bloody loud!

A few more photos are on my Flickr photostream, but I think my favourite photo is this one:

Portsmouth Mini Ambulance

The web addresses on the car are these:

http://www.southcentralambulance.co.uk - which is just a domain registration page at the moment.
http://www.saferportsmouth.org.uk/ - Safer Portsmouth.