There is provided an extendable and retractable gurney mountable to a rescue vehicle and configured to receive and hold a rescue basket thereon. The gurney has a base for fixed mounting to a floor area of the rescue vehicle. The gurney has a rescue basket cradle that slides (relative to the base) outward from a stowed configuration on a rescue vehicle to an extended configuration to receive a rescue basket, and then moves back inward to a stowed configuration in the emergency vehicle. Rollers are arrayed along a side of a longitudinally extending slat to facilitate rolling contact with an underside of a rescue basket, when it is placed on the cradle, thereby allowing the basket to be readily moved into appropriate position on the cradle for securing it to, and immobilizing it on, the gurney.