The management of Sussex Ambulance Service have just been appointed to overseee the amalgamation of Sussex, Surrey & Kent Ambulance services.
They are very much in favour of the joint role model. Kent Air Ambulance have attempted to take over in Sussex without the support of Sussex Ambulance or the existing Air Ambulance that has been operating for 16 years. Indeed in their initial publicity they explicitly said that there was no Air Ambulance in Sussex, they've now grudgingly changed that to "no dedicated Air Ambulance". Their ambiguous publicity has caused an enormous amount of confusion amongst the fund raising and giving public of the county.
The new Ambulance Service management also aim to extend the training of the helicopter paramedics in order that there is no need to carry a doctor on the aircraft.
The joint operation rarely throws up a conflict of interest, we only average 2 hours flying out of 17.5 hours of duty each day, and after all the first priority of a Police Officer is the preservation of life. We have more conflicts between police tasks than between police and ambulance.
The benefits to both services far outweigh any problems. The paramedics are trained up as observers, they aren't just passengers, and the crew work as a team of three whatever task they're involved in.
The police receive material (crew) and financial support for the operation and the ambulance service receive a HEMS helicopter for about 20% of the cost of a charity air ambulance. Additionally with a joint operation such as Sussex and Wiltshire you get increased availability, only the joint operations do Night HEMS.