"Virus" shuts NSW Ambulance system

Ambulance NSW has suffered an outage of its dispatch system over the weekend due to a computer "virus", according to reports.

A Channel7 news report and press wire AAP said it infected the dispatch computer system on Saturday, leading to a "controlled shutdown" of the affected computers in four control centres across the state.

Centres in Sydney and Newcastle were expected back online late last night.

Opposition health spokesman Jillian Skinner accused the ambulance service of putting lives at risk - a suggestion that was quashed by the service and the state's health minister Carmel Tebbutt.

"There's been no delays I've been aware of and we haven't lost a single job in the systems in any one of our four control centres," Ambulance NSW spokesman Michael Barnett-Connolly told reporters yesterday.

Tebbutt ordered a "full inquiry" into the matter, the reports said.