When we look at the likes of ‘CASUALTY’ & ‘HOLBY CITY’, we regularly see state of the art technology vehicles being used to transport the casualties from the accident scene to the accident & emergency department.

 

These vehicles are indeed a vast improvement on there predecessors, the earliest of which were in fact not horse drawn but actually man-powered being a stretcher on wheels pulled by one or two people (Llanberis Hospital), these progressed to horse drawn carriages (David Lewis hospital), and then to horse powered of the combustion engine type.

 

The earlier versions of ambulances were basic to say the least, in many cases they were vehicles that had been converted into ambulances from other types of commercial vehicle, even hearses, they literally consisted of a place to lay the casualty and storage facilities for bandages, blankets etc. In the early days the ‘ambulance service’ was not regulated as it is today, in many cases it was operated by the voluntary sector i.e. Red Cross, it was not until the 1950`s that any form of ‘regulated’ service was introduced into the U.K. and in many cases these were combined Fire & Ambulance Services.

 

However, they were nothing in comparison to what we take for granted will arrive in response to a ‘999’ call today, with the introduction of response times to emergency calls, speed of delivery of an efficient service is paramount, especially in cases such as suspected Heart Attacks where the ‘Golden Hour’ is all important in the treatment of the casualty.