Advantages and limitations of medical dispatching: the French view

One of the main features of the French emergency medical services (EMS) system as it has been developed during the last 40 years is the participation of a physician in each stage of the EMS organization. Thus, in the 100 French emergency medical dispatch centres, all calls received on 15, the national medical emergency phone number, are medically dispatched. The main advantages are: (i) better security for the caller; (ii) proper adaptation of the response to the emergency; (iii) a quicker and more efficient intervention time; (iv) the hospital is informed of the arrival of an emergency; (v) the respect of medical secrecy; (vi) a good cost-efficiency ratio in the use of intervention means. The main limitations are connected with: (i) the inaccuracy of certain calls and problems of dialogue with the caller; (ii) the poor acceptance of the system's obligations by some of the callers, patients, physicians or any other partners of the EMS organization. In the future the implementation of the multi-purpose European emergency number 112 will probably require the system's adaptation to it.