[Ten years of emergency medical service in Munich. Experiences and results].

The emergency ambulances of the emergency medical service in Munich have been called out on 89,748 occasions. From the point of view of the specialties involved, internist emergencies were the most frequent with more than half the calls. One fifth of the emergencies were street accidents, occupational and domestic accidents. Genuine saving of life was possible in 1.3% of the cases. Vital functions were disturbed in 10% of all emergencies. With increasing popularity, the emergency ambulance is called to every urgent medical case, because it appears for every patient with unsurpassed reliability and speed. Herein lies the dangers of misuse and decreasing efficiency of an organization originally conceived only for victims of street accidents.