In the Netherlands, 790 ambulances are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The ambulance care dispatch centres annually process more than 1.3 million calls that result in the deployment of an ambulance.
Ambulance care in the Netherlands is organized in 25 regions. The Regional Ambulance Service (or RAV) is responsible for providing ambulance care in the region. Within this organization, the ambulance service(s) and the ambulance care dispatch centre work closely together.
Ambulancezorg Nederland (AZN) is the national sector organization for ambulance care, offering support to the 25 Regional Ambulance Services (RAVs). It also promotes the collective interests of the ambulance care sector, on topics such as legislation, financing, human resources, and quality of care.
The Berlin Fire Brigade was established in 1851 in the German capital. The authority is responsible for Emergency Medical Services, fire fighting, technical rescue and civil protection in the State of Berlin with 3,7 million inhabitants.
The Berlin Fire Brigade coordinates about 1 million emergency calls in his 112 dispatch centre. The office of the Medical Director is leading the EMS and coordinates the teamwork of the Fire Brigade with several other organisations (relief organisations, military hospital, HEMS operators and airport EMS) and about 400 emergency physicians from 30 berlin hospitals. About 140 ambulances, 24 emergency physicians car, 4 ICU interfacility transport units and 2 helicopters are going for about 400,000 missions per year.
Helsinki Area EMS
Helsinki Area EMS is a coalition of regional municipal EMS services governed by Helsinki University Hospital (Hospital District of Helsinki and Uusimaa). The EMS serves the capital area in Finland with a population of 1,25 million inhabitants. The University Hospital in responsible for organizing all the services, for medical direction and for providing doctors for two physicians units (one ground unit for the city of Helsinki and one helicopter unit for the rest of the whole Southern Finland). All urgent ambulance services are provided by three regional Rescue (Fire) Departments. Helsinki City Rescue Department has been providing EMS service already since 1905. Non-urgent EMS services are provided by two private ambulance companies. The number of ambulance calls in 2018 was 126 000. All ambulance, fire and police emergency phone calls are handled in 112 dispatching centre, which is a governmental organization. Interhospital patient transfers are not part of EMS.
Ireland National Ambulance Service
The National Ambulance Service (NAS) provides emergency ambulance services in the Republic of Ireland.
Serving a population of 4.9 million people, NAS completes over 330,000 emergency, urgent and routine ambulance calls annually, with a staff of 1900 Advanced Paramedics, Paramedics and Emergency Medical Technicians and a fleet of over 500 vehicles (NAS provides ambulance services in Dublin city in conjunction with Dublin Fire Brigade).
The NAS National Emergency Operations Centre provides 112/999 emergency calltaking and dispatch for the service, as well as managing all emergency and planned aeromedical taskings for the Irish Health Service, including HEMS dispatch, liaison with the Irish Coast Guard helicopter service, critical care retrieval and international organ transplant flights.
SAMU, France
The SAMU de Paris, established 40, years ago is the EMS system of the French capital and a public service of the Paris Hospital administration (APHP). The SAMU is based in Necker university hospital and serve a population of 2 millions habitants. Like all the others SAMU in France, it is in charge of
The medical dispatching and regulation center receiving the calls from the tall free emergency number “15” (Medical regulation) : around 800.000 calls per year
The MICU staffed by physicians providing pre hospital critical care : around 18 000 interventions per year
The control of the admissions in hospital (ICU, ER) of all the patients receiving pre hospital critical care
SAMU teams work closely with Fire Brigade and Red Cross EMT’s In case of disaster or terrorist attacks the SAMU de Paris is in charge of the coordination of the seven other SAMU of the Paris region serving a population of 16 millions and deploying 60 MICU 24/24.
SAMUR Civil-Protection
SAMUR-Civil Protection is the EMS of the City of Madrid. Dependent of the Madrid City Council, it is the service responsible for emergency care on public roads and public places in the City. Likewise, it is the service responsible for the assistance to the situations of Catastrophe and multiple victims of the City.
With a staff of 800 professionals and more than 1500 volunteers, SAMUR performs 135,000 operations per year from the 22 operational bases it has in the city. In addition, its functions include the prevention of risk situations, such as political and social demonstrations, sporting events, religious and cultural activities, etc. Globally, it attends more than 2500 events of this type every year.
Operationally, this is a double-level service, consisting of ALS units (composed of emergency physicians, emergency nurses and emergency technicians) and BLS units (composed of two emergency technicians). Together with them, quality control units, psychological intervention units and logistic support units (CBRN unit and mass casualty unit) are in operation in real time.
As the frontline of the NHS in Scotland and with over 4500 members of staff, Scottish Ambulance Service provide an emergency ambulance service to a population of over 5 million people serving all of the nation’s mainland and island communities. The Scottish Ambulance Patient Transport Service undertakes over 1.3 million journeys every year. It provides care for patients who need support to reach their healthcare appointments due to their medical and mobility needs.
South East Coast Ambulance Service, United Kingdom
South East Coast Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust is part of the National Health Service (NHS). They respond to 999 calls from the public, urgent calls from healthcare professionals and provide NHS 111 services across the region. As part of the NHS South East Coast Ambulance Service are regulated by the Care Quality Commission (CQC). The CQC is the independent regulator of health and adult social care in England. It ensures that health and social care services provide people with safe, effective, compassionate high quality care and encourages care services to improve.
The Prehospital Division of the Oslo University Hospital Health Trust
The Prehospital Division of the Oslo University Hospital Health Trust is responsible for the specialized prehospital services of Norway’s capital, Oslo, and the surrounding municipalities of the greater Oslo area. The division is organized into four departments:
Ambulance Service with currently 19 ambulance stations and 70 ambulance units staffed by EMTs and paramedics. In addition, the department organizes several special units like the CBRNE ambulance, urban rescue unit and MC ambulance.
Air Ambulance Department responsible for the medical staffing of two helicopters, one search and rescue helicopter, three ambulance airplanes (including a RescEU unit), one physician staffed ambulance and an intensive care ambulance. In addition, the department holds several regional, national and international emergency preparedness functions.
Emergency Medical Communication Centre handles all calls to the medical emergency number 113 in the greater Oslo area and dispatches all ground and air ambulances in the area. In addition, they are responsible for flight following of all HEMS units in the South-Eastern Regional health Authority of Norway.
Patient transport organizes the transport of non-urgent transports in the greater Oslo area. This includes a fleet of “white ambulances” for lying patient without the need for medical care.
The division also houses the National Competence Centre for Prehospital Emergency Medicine, which is responsible for the Norwegian Cardiac Arrest registry, the national AED registry and the maintenance of the Norwegian Index for Medical Emergencies, the national triage tool for all Emergency Medical Communication Centers in Norway. The center is also involved in 15 PhD projects and runs a national portal for e-learning in emergency medicine.
