Important change in Hungarian ambulance service

Huge changes are coming to the Hungarian ambulance services. You will want to keep these in mind just in case you need to call for an ambulance in the country in the future.

On 18 September, Minister of Interior Sándor Pintér paid a personal visit to the rescue control centre of the National Ambulance Service (OMSZ). He assigned the OMSZ a very important task: the task of developing Europe’s best, fastest and most efficient rescue and rescue management system, Népszava reports.

Paramount changes

In order to achieve this, a number of major changes will be implemented.

Speed limit

First of all, the permitted speed of ambulance vehicles will be limited. From the beginning of October, even when transporting seriously injured patient, paramedics will be allowed to exceed the speed limit for other road users by up to 30 km/h, even when the siren is sounding.

On-site video call

Second, from 1 November, the so-called on-site video call will be introduced. This means that the person in need of help and the circumstances can be videoed by the person involved in the rescue. In response to the question of Népszava, the OMSZ underscored that “in situations like this, it is only a video link and no recording or storing is made in the context of data management”.

Change in order of priority

In the ambulance prioritisation scheme, calls previously classified as P1 to P3 can now be classified between P1 and P5 by call handlers. P1 and P2 will continue to be the most serious cases, and ambulance cars will be required to have the siren on. Even in P3, the use of the siren is compulsory, but can be overridden by an individual decision of the rescue manager.

In cases classified as P4, assistance may be provided by telephone. If necessary, an ambulance will be dispatched depending on the rescue capacity. For those in P5, an ambulance will not be alerted. For example, blood pressure values without other “alarming symptoms”, limb pains, headache, backache not accompanied by neurological symptoms are included.

According to the OMSZ, the new prioritisation scheme will allow more options to choose the most appropriate level of urgency for the patient, depending on their condition. “This will lead to the introduction of a system that is more transparent, more diversified, and reviewed in the light of international experience,” they said.

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