Second Paper: The Design of Ambulances

Abstract

Although only about 5 per cent of the work of ambulance services concerns emergency cases, it is the seriously ill or injured patients that pose the most difficult problems in design. Much of this difficulty springs from the fact that only a few hundred ambulances are required each year, which means that vehicles produced as a result of special research and design would be very expensive. The following objectives should be accepted. (1) To eliminate jolts without causing nauseating swaying. (2) To provide a vehicle in which a stretcher trolley can be firmly fixed either in the centre of the vehicle or along each side, where trolleys could, if necessary, be used as seats. (3) To provide the stowage space for necessary medical and some light rescue equipment. (4) Easy entry for stretcher trolleys at the rear and easy passage between the crew and patient compartments. (5) Ideally, the suspension should be appropriate for a load of two crew, two stretcher patients and necessary equipment but in many cases economic considerations make it desirable to design ambulances that can carry up to ten seated persons. The only justification that a surgeon with very little mechanical knowledge can have for addressing this Institution on the subject of the design of ambulances is an interest in the subject born of the awareness of its importance, combined with detailed knowledge of what facilities seriously ill or seriously injured persons need while being taken to hospital.