Low Roof Ambulance

sgthighway

Anybody use a low roof Ambulance out there. I don't mean a 4x4. I would be taking about a low roof Transit or Vivaro. Its has been mentioned and its a valid point that we spend most of our time sitting down with the patient.
OMAC HQ are suggesting them. They would be great for road handling. They are supposed to be common in France.

Any feedback/experience?

jmccoy

I have seen them in use in Paris, but only with the privates. The main ambulance service is run by Sapeur Pompiers de Paris using mainly Renault Masters and Peugeot Boxers.

DubMedic

The low roof transit would not work imho, there just simply is not enough room. Unless you get snow white and the seven dwarfs to crew ambulances, maybe they can fit and work in that environment.

The vol i'm with in my spare time uses standard high roof transits with wilker conversions. There is not enough room for more than one medic to work in the back with a pt , with the exception of the attendant chair.
It has two patient seats, as well as stretcher space. Being able to move past each other when the seats are in use , is difficult. That said when the seats are not in use, they can be folded up.
There is , however, a good point to it. The walk-through between the passenger and driver is still there, so it's easy to maintain communication with the driver, cabinets make most things easy to find, and the rail for IV Fluids is overhead.

Transits are not made for comfort though, the ride can be bumpy at times, sluggish. If you don't get a good driver you will be a puppet on a string in the back when he/she shifts gears. Suspension on Transits is to be avoided, it's a pile of you know what.

I can post pics of the interior/exterior here or in the gallery, if you wish.

What about the old Merc Sprinters?.
OMAC has EMT classes , it is going forward with the 21st century.

Forward ( at least what vols might start looking at ) :

http://www.flickr.com/photos/paramedic_alan/1418032013/

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ScubaDave

Civil Defence have several 06/07 low roof transits in operation! Wilker conversions!

moose112

https://us.v-cdn.net/6034073/uploads/attachments/134773/84937.jpg

petergfiffin

Dunno if this is the type of thing you're talking about but I've seen these in Sweden and they can fairly move!!

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d1/Swedish_ambulance_Kronoberg.jpg

Granted they're as ugly as f*ck but I can only imagine they're more comfortable than a transit van and if the Swedes are using them it's probably a safe bet they're pretty good

Capri

Considering how akward the 'traditionals' look and no doubt their top speed is limited, anything has to be an improvment.

http://www.eurolans.se/en/ambulance/mercedes-benz-vito-ambulance.asp


http://www.eurolans.se/en/vehicles.asp

Tabnabs

Also common in Norway, although starting to be replaced by transit type vans now.

But the low roof models are like this and this.

DubMedic

Dyflin wrote: »

But the low roof models are like this and this.

That ambulance shown here:

http://home.online.no/~alta-amb/270V.htm

Appears to be from a while back. Anyone else notice the Spencer bag on the right? I remember that from some time back, at least in this country anyway.

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Run_to_da_hills

The French have been using the Citroen DS estate as an ambulance platform since the late 50ies right into the mid 70ies. I can see the advantages of these when trying to get to an emergency through a multi story car park or a 1.7 MT barrier.

http://sergeirene.s.e.pic.centerblog.net/yu1k45zw.jpg

Tango Alpha 51

Low roof ambulances & I'm not talking about the "ghostbusters" type merc, talking more specifically about the Vito etc will only ever work if the HSE NAS were limited to AS1 & AS2 calls only. We still do a serious amount of pts(as3) work which wouldn't be suitable for these type of vehicles.

Tango Alpha 51

Capri wrote: »

Considering how akward the 'traditionals' look and no doubt their top speed is limited, anything has to be an improvment.

http://www.eurolans.se/en/ambulance/mercedes-benz-vito-ambulance.asp


http://www.eurolans.se/en/vehicles.asp

Their top speed is limited. 140kms an hour in something weighing nearly 6tons is enough. The only drawback is when your on the motorway to Dublin & every gob****e is doing more than that & thinks it's hilarious to pass out the ambulance because it's on blue lights.

DFB BOY

buzzman wrote: »

Their top speed is limited. 140kms an hour in something weighing nearly 6tons is enough. The only drawback is when your on the motorway to Dublin & every gob****e is doing more than that & thinks it's hilarious to pass out the ambulance because it's on blue lights.

Had someone on the M50 the other day doing that in a audi TT :D