The statement from ambulance station manager Scott Clarke comes after TAFE NSW encouraged more locals to sign-up for a first aid course this week.

"In a life-threatening emergency, some pretty basic measures can have a drastic impact on patient outcome," Mr Clarke said.

"It's often the most basic actions [like CPR] that people can take that can have a really big impact, and you learn those basic actions at a first aid course."

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The intensive care paramedic said a cardiac arrest was an "obvious example".

"The response time for an ambulance across NSW for an 1A response is less than 10 minutes ... but it only takes three to four minutes before you start to look at some pretty severe brain damage if somebody's heart is not beating," he said.

"So CPR has been identified as the single most important factor in giving someone a chance that they otherwise wouldn't have."

Mr Clarke said he believed fear played a part in people's reluctance to learn first aid.

"I think that people probably get scared," he said.

"Now I know it's easy for me to say that because I've been doing my job for 22 years but ... the resuscitation that we do is centred on CPR, and that's no different to a person whose got a first aid certificate.

"Good CPR will ultimately save lives."

Another common obstacle is "a lack of awareness" around when to dial triple zero.

Mr Clarke first raised the issue with NVI in 2017 when paramedics noticed the number of local people self-presenting at Gunnedah District Hospital had risen.

"A lot of people don't know when to call an ambulance in an emergency," he said on Thursday.

"There are plenty of examples of people who should have come to hospital by ambulance ... and they turn up at the hospital .... and they didn't call us because they thought we'd be busy.

"I'm sure there are people who don't fully understand what our role is and what role we can play within the health system ... We've got access to an entire health system."

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