Last year's job numbers were down for the rescue service, bucking the trend set by previous years.

Overall there were 373 missions by the end of November in the Tamworth region, with 207 pick-ups direct from a scene and 166 medical retrievals or hospital transfers.

A spokesman told the Leader that year on year, the number of jobs the crews were sent to were increasing.

"When COVID hit and everything went into lockdown, our workload did decrease dramatically," he said.

"A lot of people weren't out and about doing things and hospitals were a lot quieter too with most elective surgery getting shut down."

He said the road toll had been the lowest it had ever been in 97 years.

"It's a hard thing to say what to expect this year," he noted.

"But before COVID our numbers were picking up year on year across the bases, so it's reasonable to think it'll pick up again this year."

On a crew himself, he said COVID had been "trying for everyone".

"Thankfully I didn't have to pick up any [COVID] patients, but there were a few cases where the patient we were getting had the symptoms, so we had to take full precautions." Like full PPE gear and a "labour intensive" clean-up afterwards.

"Hopefully the vaccine rollout will be a positive for everyone."

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Many of the accidents the Westpac Rescue Helicopter attended included farming incidents, like falls from quad bikes and horses.

"Not many people were on the roads, or not as many as normal," he said.

"This meant there was a decline in the number of road accidents we were called out to."

He said at the end of the day whether accidents happen or not, the rescue crews still "never stop and are always open."