Ambulances in Czechoslovakia and the Czech Republic

Ambulances have been serving people for nearly 110 years. This book attempts to map in words and pictures the long and varied history of ambulances from the early days of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy through interwar Czechoslovakia and the Protectorate, the long post-war decades of socialism to the multifaceted present.

The first ambulances were only an individual affair, individual vehicles were built by custom coachbuilders, according to the requirements and financial possibilities of customers. The ambulances were intended only to transport the wounded and sick to medical facilities and their equipment was rather spartan. The cars had only a canopy for the driver and a samaritan and the place for patients was provided only with a tarpaulin against bad weather. Over time, ambulances were improved, had a solid construction, were insulated and equipped with ever better stretchers. Above all, however, equipment has been added to enable the attending physician to treat the patient as soon as he or she is brought to the hospital. There was no shortage of medicines, tools and medical supplies (bandages and wooden splints for fractured limbs). In particular, devices for infusion, oxygen resuscitation and gastric lavage were added.

Of course, the design and equipment of ambulances has been continuously improved over the years to the form of today's fast ambulances. In the first years of the Czechoslovak Republic (1918–1938), the Czechoslovak Red Cross played an important role and gradually a network of first aid stations began to be built. With the development of technology, not only ambulances were improved, but also communication between the dispatching centre and doctors in the field and hospitals.

The author has compiled a previously unpublished exhibition of custom ambulance bodies from the First Republic and the Protectorate, recalling mass-produced ambulances and prototypes from 1945 to 1990 and a wide variety of ambulances built and operated in the Czech Republic during the last three decades. The publication is accompanied by more than 500 photographs, most of which have never been published before.