Emergency medical care in The Netherlands

In The Netherlands a serious effort is underway to improving the performance of the emergency medical care system by functionally integrating ambulance services and hospitals into a comprehensive care network. Ambulance services are actively stimulated to join regional bodies offering adequate resources to deal with a whole range of incidents from day-to-day accidents to large-scale disasters. At the same time the development of a network of 'Accident and Emergency' hospitals is being promoted. Such networks will be centred around government-appointed traumacentres. Regional ambulance bodies and 'A&E-network' will be geographically attuned into an integral EMC-system, supervised by an EMC-officer assigned by the local authorities that constitute the regional authority. The Dutch government has initiated a project to streamline and monitor the developments. The project has proved to be a stimulating example of effective collaboration between the government and various involved professional disciplines.