On 8 August 2010 20:02, Paul Johnson <ba...@ursamundi.org> wrote: > > Coming up with tagging schemes for stuff like this hard, because of the > > different ways different countries group stuff. I was recently in an > > ambulance in France, and chatting with the people inside I was surprised > > to learn that in addition to being ambulance officers they also acted as > > firemen: they were "sapeurs-pompiers", and were employed by the local > > council. They contrasted themselves with "ambulanciers" who are employed > > by a hospital. > > We have the same thing in the United States. "Fire & Rescue" as opposed > to "ambulance service." Both carry emergency medical technicians, but > the former are almost always trained firefighters as well, and the latter > is almost always a privately owned contractor to the city. > > In France, ambulance can either be private or belonging to an hospital. In addition, as Steve mentioned, the "sapeur-pompier" works very similarly to what they have in the US. We also have something else called SAMU in France which is pretty much emergency doctors and ends up acting sometimes acting as an ambulance in the extreme case, while providing intensive health care. Anyhow, usually, when you call yourself an ambulance in France, it is usually not an emergency, as you would be calling the SAMU instead. Medical care is one of the thing that is so different from countries to countries and it is very difficult to make particular assumptions, hence the reason, it is best to know how it works where you are going :)
Emilie Laffray
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