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The London Ambulance Service (LAS) is a National Health Service trust that is responsible for answering and responding to medical emergencies in Greater London, with over 4,500 staff at its disposal. It is one of the busiest ambulance services in the world, and the busiest in the United Kingdom, serving more than 7 million people that live and work in London. Once a 999 call has been received by the LAS Emergency Operations Centre, the London Ambulance Service will either resolve the call over the telephone or dispatch a front line or A&E support ambulance, fast response car (FRU), motorcycle response unit, cycle response unit or the Helicopter Emergency Medical Service (operating a helicopter, trauma response car and physician response unit), depending on the nature of the emergency. In exceptional cases, or where the service deems in necessary, specialist teams can be deployed from within the service, such as the Hazardous Area Response Team and Specialist Operations. These teams are specially trained and equipped to deal with incidents such as working at height or in confined spaces.〔(London Ambulance Service: Facts & figures )〕 It is one of 10 ambulance trusts in England providing emergency medical services, and is part of the National Health Service, receiving direct government funding for its role. There is no charge to patients for use of the service, as every person in England has the right to the attendance of an ambulance in an emergency. The LAS responds to over 1.5 million calls for assistance every year. All 999 calls from the public are answered at the Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) in Waterloo, which then dispatches the appropriate resources. To assist, the service's command and control system is linked electronically with the equivalent system for London's Metropolitan Police. This means that police updates regarding specific jobs will be updated directly on the computer-aided dispatch (CAD) log, to be viewed by the EOC and the resources allocated to the job. ==History== In 1818, a Parliamentary Select Committee had recommended that provision be made for carrying infectious patients in London "which would prevent the use of coaches or sedan chairs" but nothing was done. In 1866, a Hospital Carriage Fund provided six carriages to hospitals in the metropolitan area, for the use of patients suffering from smallpox or other infectious diseases, provided that they pay for the hire of the horses. The first permanent ambulance service in London was established by the Metropolitan Asylums Board (MAB) in 1879, when a new Poor Law Act empowered them "to provide and maintain carriages suitable for the conveyance of persons suffering from any infectious disorder". The first became operational at The South Eastern Fever Hospital, Deptford, in October 1883. In all, six hospitals operated horse-drawn "land ambulances", putting almost the whole of London within three miles (five kilometres) of one of them. Each ambulance station included accommodation for a married superintendent and around 20 drivers, horse keepers and attendants, nurses, laundry staff and domestic cleaners. A fleet of four paddle steamer "river ambulances" transported smallpox patients along the River Thames to Deptford, where they could be quarantined on hospital ships, departing from three special wharves at Rotherhithe, Blackwall and Fulham. At Deptford, in order to transfer patients between the hospitals at Joyce Green and Long Reach near Gravesend, a horse-drawn ambulance tramway was constructed in 1897 and extended in 1904. In 1902, the MAB introduced a steam driven ambulance and in 1904, their first motor ambulance. The last horse-drawn ambulances were used on 14 September 1912.〔 Although the MAB was legally supposed to be transporting only infectious patients, it increasingly also carried accident victims and emergency medical cases. The Metropolitan Ambulance Act, 1909, empowered the London County Council to establish an emergency ambulance service, but this was not established until February 1915 and was under the control of the chief of the London Fire Brigade.〔Ayers, Gwendoline M (1971) (''England's First State Hospitals and the Metropolitan Asylums Board, 1867-1930'' ), Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine at UCL, ISBN 978-0854840069 (pp. 190-191)〕 Also in 1915, the MAB Ambulance Section were the first public body to employ women drivers, due to the number of men who had volunteered for military service. By July 1916 the London County Council Ambulance Corps was staffed entirely by women.〔Marwick, Arthur (1977), (''Women at War 1914-1918'' ), Fontana Paperbacks in Association with the Imperial War Museum (p. 75)〕 By 1930, the MAB was the largest user of civil ambulance services in the world,〔 however the Local Government Act 1929 meant that work of the MAB was taken over by the London County Council, which also took charge of the modern fleet of 107 MAB motor ambulances, together with 46 ambulances which were run by local Poor law unions. Taken with the 21 ambulances already operated by the LCC, this provided a comprehensive service for all kinds of illness and accident, which was under the direction of the Medical Officer of Health for the County of London. The LCC also took control of the River Ambulance Service, but it was disbanded in 1932.〔 During World War II, the London Auxiliary Ambulance Service was operated by over 10,000 auxiliaries, mainly women, from all walks of life. They ran services from 139 Auxiliary Stations across London. A plaque at one of the last to close, Station 39 in Weymouth Mews, near Portland Place, commemorates their wartime service.〔City of Westminster green plaques http://www.westminster.gov.uk/services/leisureandculture/greenplaques/〕 In 1948 the National Health Service Act (1946) made it a requirement for ambulances to be available for anyone who needed them. The present-day London Ambulance Service was formed in 1965 by the amalgamation of nine existing services in the new county of Greater London,〔(London Ambulance Service website: History )〕 and in 1974, after a reorganisation of the NHS, the LAS was transferred from the control of local government to the South West Thames Regional Health Authority. On 1 April 1996, the LAS left the control of the South West Thames Regional Health Authority and became an NHS trust.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「London Ambulance Service」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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