Emergency medical services in France
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In France, the most general term is "vehicle adapted to patient transport"; the term "ambulance" only applies for some categories of patient transport vehicles.
The word "ambulance" is reserved to transportation on medical prescription, including oral prescription in case of emergency. It does not apply to first responders vehicles (most of the time firefighters), although they also transport casualties; their vehicles are called VSAV–véhicule de secours et d'assistance aux victimes (casualties' rescue and assistance vehicle), or VPS–véhicules de premiers secours (first aid vehicles) in case of volunteers from associations. The VSAV and VPS are considered as vectors that bring rescue workers and devices onsite, the evacuation being only the logical following of this intervention but not their main duty.
The SAMU (Service d'Aide Médicale d'Urgence, "Emergency Medical Assistance Service") is the French hospital based emergency medical service. It was founded in 1968 by coordinating the existing SMUR teams (prehospital care units).
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