Description of the prehospital emergency healthcare system in Norway.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Norway has a long coastline, steep mountains, and wide fjords, which presents some challenges to the prehospital emergency healthcare system. In recent years, the prehospital emergency medical services (EMS) have undergone significant changes, structurally, in terms of professionalisation of the services and in the education level of the personnel. In this article, we aim to describe the current structure for handling prehospital medical emergencies.

Methods

For healthcare, Norway is divided into four Regional Health Authorities, consisting of 19 Health Trusts, where 18 have an EMS. There is a dedicated medical emergency number, 113, that terminates in 16 emergency medical communication centres. The use of air and boat ambulances, in addition to traditional ambula

SUBMITTER: Kjærvoll HK 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10701116 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature