NAS’s successful coping with the pandemic situation

Abstract

Although this year marks the 73rd birthday of the Hungarian National Ambulance Service (NAS) and the 134th anniversary of the organized Hungarian life-saving but the ambulances may have only been challenged by the world wars and the revolution of ’56, which is measurable to the COVID epidemic. At the peak of the epidemic, in addition to our basic tasks, we provided care for 1,500 COVID cases per day. The ambulance workers to this day provided help to more than 160,000 patients with suspected or confirmed coronavirus infection. About 1.3 million people were sampled and tested for COVID, while the ambulance also performed their basic tasks of life-saving. Since the beginning of the epidemic, our efforts have been guided by two goals: to do everything for the patients, and protect physically and mentally our fellow colleagues, „comrades”. We elaborated strict protocols, made clearance zones and all protective equipment was provided from the beginning, so our comrades had a very small chance to catch the infection while working. The highest infection rate in our staff was 2.5 per cent, which decreased to a minimum after vaccinations. Our work was supported by volunteers, university and college students, by the work of patient transport organizations and also donations from individuals and companies. It can be stated that the success achieved is the result of previous preparation, disciplined implementation and the application of innovative solutions.