The ambulance service operates around the clock and provides assistance to patients in conditions requiring urgent medical intervention (accident, injury, poisoning, other conditions and diseases), is carried out without delay by the state ambulance service.
For a false emergency call perpetrators are liable in accordance with the legislation of the Republic of Belarus.
Transportation of patients who do not require medical care is carried out on a paid basis.
An ambulance is called from any city phone, pay phone, mobile phone by the number “103” free of charge, personally when citizens apply to the station or emergency department.
An ambulance is called for adults and children in case of accidents, life-threatening conditions and sudden illnesses, regardless of their place of occurrence (house, street, public places, institutions, etc.). Departure of the ambulance team to a public place is carried out in the first place.
Accidents include:
automobile and other transport, street, industrial and domestic injuries (wounds, fractures, dislocations, burns, frostbite, electric shock or lightning), drowning, suffocation, foreign bodies in the respiratory tract, bleeding resulting from trauma, suicidal attempts, acute non-food poisoning nature, mental disorders that pose a danger to the patient and others.
Life-threatening conditions include:
loss of consciousness, respiratory distress, convulsions, sudden acute pain in the region of the heart, cardiac arrhythmias, cerebrovascular accident.
Sudden illnesses include:
acute abdominal pain accompanied by vomiting, an attack of bronchial asthma, acute poisoning (food). Ambulance delivers women in labor who need emergency hospitalization to the maternity ward.
Ambulance calls are divided into emergency, urgent, immediate.
For example, emergency calls include: an accident, unconsciousness, convulsions, fever rash in children, chemical poisoning of the patient, or drugs, drowning, extensive burns, deep and extensive wounds, traffic accidents, falls from a height, fire and other accidents, i.e. diseases that pose a danger to the life and health of the patient at the time of treatment. An emergency call is transmitted by a paramedic to receive calls to a free ambulance team no later than 4 minutes from the moment of its registration.
Urgent calls include: abnormal heart rhythm (arrhythmia), heart attack, asthma attack, trauma, foreign body, bleeding (gastric intestinal, uterine, nasal), frostbite, childbirth, sudden impairment of motor activity and other diseases that at the time of treatment do not pose a danger to the life and health of the patient, but without medical assistance within an hour can pose a threat to his life and health. An urgent call is transferred to a free ambulance crew no later than 15 minutes from the moment the call is registered.
Immediate calls include: significant change in blood pressure, allergies, inappropriate behavior, renal colic, vomiting, rash, acute urinary retention, high temperature (if it does not decrease after taking medicines) and other diseases that at the time of treatment do not pose a danger to the life and health of the patient, but which can lead to a deterioration in his health during the day. An urgent call is transferred to the ambulance crew no later than 1 hour from the moment the call is registered. During the work of the polyclinic, rural outpatient clinics, FAPs, emergency calls are forwarded by the ambulance dispatcher to the healthcare facility at the patient’s place of residence, therefore, in such cases, it is better to immediately contact the local doctor or FAP paramedic.
After receiving a call, the ambulance team must within 15 minutes in urban areas and within 30 minutes in other settlements to come to the patient. As a result, the arrival time of the emergency brigade in the city should be about 19 minutes, and in rural areas – about 34 minutes. Accordingly, the arrival time of the ambulance brigade increases with urgent and urgent calls.
In the practice of emergency medical care, there are cases when a large number of calls are received simultaneously and the teams on duty are physically unable to arrive on time. In addition, a significant part of the calls come from patients with chronic diseases who must regularly visit the local doctor and take basic treatment. In such cases, the ambulance does not solve the patient’s problem, but only distracts from the really urgent and urgent work.
When calling an ambulance by calling “103”, you need to report:
exact address (house and apartment numbers, entrance, floor), last name, age of the victim or patient, reason for calling, phone number and last name of the caller.
The work is hampered by the lack of signs indicating the street or house number (especially in rural areas), the lack of numbering of entrances and a list of apartments. It is not uncommon for all new doors on the landing to be unnumbered. If it is difficult to find a house or apartment, the medical staff of the EMS team can contact you through the dispatcher for help, and then it is better to meet the team on the street. To reduce unnecessary time for the arrival of the team, it is necessary (if calling from home) to prepare two stools, provide sufficient lighting and isolate pets. If the call is not subject to ambulance service, the dispatcher will advise you where to go in this case.
The ambulance does not issue sick leave certificates, does not conduct an examination of alcohol intoxication, does not issue prescriptions and prescribe further treatment to patients, does not fulfill the prescriptions of polyclinic doctors and other healthcare organizations (except for the administration of painkillers to patients with cancer), does not resolve issues of social security or care . The ambulance does not work like a taxiif you need to get to the hospital or from the hospital home, the exception is stretcher patients who cannot get to the hospital on their own, and children of the first year of life, at the request of district doctors.
A person, first of all, should be responsible for his own health and not neglect the prescribed treatment, follow the recommendations of the local doctor, lead a healthy lifestyle, then you may not have to seek emergency help.
The article uses materials from the newspaper “Medical Bulletin”.