And while some have queried the timing of the announcement that the rescue chopper will remain based at Albion Park, everyone has welcomed the news that the vital aeromedical service is here to stay.

None more so than the men and women who staff the Albion Park base - including the paramedics, doctors and pilots who risk their lives to conduct rescue missions in dangerous circumstances.

SAVED: Medical chopper to stay at Albion Park

It was business as usual at the base yesterday, with the crew tasked to Mollymook to winch to safety a woman who had fallen off the side of a cliff and transport her to a Sydney hospital.

It has been a rough year so far for the crew, faced with uncertainty over their job location after an independent report recommended that the state government move their base to Sydney.

"We've faced uncertainty about the locale of our work which can be a bit unsettling and destabilising," said paramedic Andrew Ryan, station manager of the base at Illawarra Regional Airport.

"It's good to see the NSW government has decided to leave us where we are based on their own analysis of the information [in the report] and in conjunction with the community support that's been overwhelming to ensure we remain in place in Wollongong.

"I think communities have begun to realise that if you let something go you'll never get it back, so they tend to protect the resources they have.

"And this is an essential resource providing high quality emergency care to the sick and injured not only in the Illawarra and South Coast but right across NSW."

Kiama MP Gareth Ward ended the uncertainty on Thursday when he announced that NSW Health Minister Jillian Skinner had opted to keep the helicopter base at Albion Park.

"It's a great result and I thank all the people who assisted from the Rotary clubs, to the people who signed the petitions, to the people who staff and fly the chopper, to union representatives and my fellow MPs," he said.

"It's not every day you get a union official and a Liberal MP working together and I hope to see more of this kind of collaboration in order to get the right results for the region."

South Coast Labour Council secretary Arthur Rorris was also delighted with the decision.

"It's great to win the battle for the second time around - it took us years to get a 24/7 chopper with a doctor on board to start with and it was pretty audacious for the bean counters and the health bureaucrats to try and remove that service," he said.

"But I am very pleased that we have seen a strong and united response and I think full credit should go to everybody who assisted in the campaign.

"From an industrial perspective I think every coalminer, steelworker, maritime worker, transport worker, and the rest of the community for that matter, can sleep a little easier knowing that the threat no longer hangs over our rescue capacity in the region."

Wollongong MP Noreen Hay said the "firm stance and joint effort" had resulted in the victory.

"It's not often that both sides of politics come together in agreement on an issue and I am thrilled with this outcome," she said.

"I have no doubt that the strong community support was a key factor in the decision to keep this vital service local."

However Keira MP Ryan Park said while it was a "good decision", the timing of the announcement was suspect.

"I'm very aware that this decision and announcement has been made during a horrific week for the Illawarra community with a terrible budget that has left the region shortchanged," he said.

"I'm very glad we're keeping something that's already ours but it's a decision that has taken four months when it should have taken four minutes."

Shellharbour MP Anna Watson was even firmer, claiming the NSW government was trying to "con the Illawarra community after its kick-in-the-gut budget".

"This announcement, which has been cherry-picked from a yet-to-be-released report, comes just days after the Illawarra community revolted in disgust over the NSW government's underwhelming budget and the disclosure that the region has been dudded from its port sale in comparison with Newcastle," she said.

NSW Health Minister Jillian Skinner said the formal response to the NSW Aeromedical (Rotary Wing) Retrieval Services report would be released next month.

"The NSW government initiated an independent review into the state's aeromedical services to ensure that patient needs are being met and taxpayers are getting value for money when it comes to these contracted services," she said.

"The recommendations of the ... report have always been just that - recommendations.

"There has been a great deal of community interest and support to ensure the Albion Park aeromedical base stays at Albion Park and this was clear from the submissions made during the consultation period."