HUNTER ambulance union delegates will discuss today how to escalate industrial action without adversely affecting patients, after yesterday imposing paperwork bans that ensured patients across the state received free ambulance rides.

The Health Services Union gave the NSW Government on Tuesday a 48-hour deadline to come up with 300 ambulance officers, 60 patient transport officers and sack chief executive officer Greg Rochford.

Health Services Union organiser Peter Rumball said that when the NSW Government failed to meet the deadline at noon yesterday ambulance officers put paperwork bans in place. This meant that patients would not be charged for ambulance rides.

The ban is expected to cost the NSW Government $1.5 million a week and will remain until the union's demands are met.

Ambulance union delegates will hold a telephone conference today to decide how to proceed with industrial action.

"We've got a phone link up tomorrow to decide how to escalate our industrial protest without hurting patients," Mr Rumball said yesterday.

Mr Rumball said that of the extra ambulance officers the union was requesting, 78 would be for the Hunter, as well as an extra 12 to 16 patient transport officers.

"We've been struggling for numbers in the Hunter for more than 10 years and we still haven't got them," he said.

Ambulance officers claimed Mr Rochford failed to stamp out a culture of bullying and didn't know what frontline workers were experiencing.