Most accident victims (62%) in Poland die en route to the hospital, in
part due to slow response from ambulance services. Currently, ambulance
arrival time is sometimes as long as one hour, while the time that
elapses before a victim can be examined by a specialist is about 3
hours. The Health Ministry is instituting a new plan coordinating all
ambulance dispatch units; in addition, the government will re-vamp
ambulances and retrain paramedics by 2006. The target response time is
eight minutes in cities and 15 minutes in rural areas. Introduction of
private rescue services is also planned. (Zycie, p. 5) S.M.
