The missions - mainly in the Illawarra, Southern Highlands and South Coast but as far afield as the Blue Mountains, Canberra and Thredbo - add weight to the escalating campaign to keep the service in the region.

Kiama MP Gareth Ward said yesterday the petition to keep the service based at Albion Park had now reached 10,000 signatures, forcing the issue to be debated in NSW Parliament.

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Mr Ward will table the petition in the Legislative Assembly on Tuesday with a debate to take place in coming weeks.

"The community has spoken loudly on this issue - they want aeromedical services operating out of Albion Park to be retained in order to ensure speedy response times to accident, injury and misadventure in our district," he said.

The petition calls on the NSW government to reject the recommendation in an independent report by Ernst & Young to remove the service from Albion Park. The government is considering moving the base to Sydney, citing cost savings, but Nowra is also considered to be a contender.

A spokeswoman for NSW Health Minister Jillian Skinner yesterday told the Mercury the government's response to the report would be made public next month.

South Coast Labour Council secretary Arthur Rorris said the report from NSW Ambulance, obtained by the Mercury under the Government Information (Public Access) Act, showcased the need for the service in the region.

The report revealed the aeromedical service carried out 270 inter-hospital missions from January 1, 2010 to December 31, 2012, as well as 150 pre-hospital missions.

However, Mr Rorris believes that the "real figure" would be twice that amount.

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"Our information is that the chopper is doing twice as many missions as has been suggested," he said.

"Plus, those figures don't include the jobs being done in the region by other aeromedical services when this chopper is busy.

"However we don't want to quibble about the numbers - clearly there's hundreds of missions being carried out so, even if we accepted the government's figures, there's clearly a huge demand for this service.

"And if you did a scatter graph of all the jobs listed in the report you'd find the centre of activity would almost exactly be at Albion Park which is the exact location where the base currently is."

Mr Rorris said the issue wasn't just about "numbers", it was about saving lives.

"It's about the emergency service needs of this region, it's about the industrial needs of this region," he said.

"Coalminers, steelworkers, maritime workers, construction workers and many others have sent a loud message to the government 'Don't touch our chopper and access to specialist field-trained doctors'.

"The chopper is able to provide an extremely fast and efficient response to incidents.

"And even when the chopper is grounded, that specialist doctor and crew can get to patients by road to perform life-saving procedures."

Mr Rorris said the campaign to have a permanent aeromedical service with a specialist crew in the region went back "decades".

The death of Ron Tabak, who died on February 10, 2004 after a 10-metre fall at the Port Kembla sewage treatment plant, highlighted the need for it.

"The accident happened before the chopper had a doctor on board and, in his findings into Ron Tabak's death, the coroner noted that there may have been a different outcome if there had been a doctor available," Mr Rorris said.

"How could we live with ourselves if we allowed a return to the bad old days where we were knocking on the doors of our already strained emergency departments for doctors for industrial accidents when we have a specially trained doctor right here for that purpose?

"This issue is a real test for our local MPs."

Mr Ward said he was looking forward to arguing the case to retain the service in the region "very strongly" in Parliament.

"I would like to sincerely thank the many small businesses and local community groups who have supported this petition because their support has made this milestone possible."

He said in particular Leigh Robinson, president of the Wollongong Rotary Club, had worked tirelessly on the campaign.