Local politicians, councils, residents and community groups have fought a long campaign to make the retrieval service a reality and the helicopter was ready for take-off last night.

A 20,000-signature petition presented to state parliament made clear the support for the service across the Central West and the three local MPs – Nationals Paul Toole (Bathurst), Andrew Gee (Orange) and Troy Grant (Dubbo) – ensured their Coalition colleagues could not ignore the issue.

In the end, the case was too strong.

The Central West is one of the fastest growing regions of the state and helicopter transfers to Sydney are not uncommon.

There will be no shortage of work for the new service following car crashes, serious accidents, assaults and other trauma and, in all these cases, every minute counts.

The idea of a helicopter having to fly from Sydney to retrieve a patient from the Central West is no longer acceptable and having the helicopter based in Orange will reduce response times right across the region.

The case for a 24-hour helicopter service mirrors Bathurst’s fight for a 24-hour fire station.

At the centre of the campaign was the question of equity and ensuring every town had the same access to prompt emergency care as its neighbours.

Of course, as with the 24-hour fire station, no one wants to be the first to benefit from the 24-hour helicopter service and we would all hope we never have to use it.

But, as with the 24-hour fire station, if tragedy strikes and we do need the helicopter, we will be happy to see it arriving on the scene much earlier than would previously have been the case.