The Association of Professional Ambulance Personnel or APAE was founded in 1981 by a group of West Country ambulance personnel who had become dissatisfied with the representation provided by the traditional National Health Service unions, and decided to set up their own specialist union.
It claims to be the first certified independent trade union to cater only for ambulance personnel and presumably competes with the Ambulance Service Union for the job of representing ambulance staff employed by the United Kingdom National Health Service.
There is also a Canadian Association of Professional Ambulance Personnel, created on the 1st December 1999 that performs much the same function in respect of ambulance staff in the Toronto area.