EMS Around the World: Luxembourg Advances EMS Reform, Mulls Electric Ambulance Acquisition

Luxembourg’s Grand Ducal Fire and Rescue Corps (CGDIS), the state-run entity responsible for emergency medical services (EMS) in the European Union’s second smallest member state, is advancing reform of the service’s activities, hoping to reduce its response time. The service is also testing electrical ambulances to potentially reduce the carbon footprint of its vehicle fleet. 

The state-run EMS operator, SAMU, is part of the CGDIS and is responsible for about 75 percent of all of the entity's rescue operations. The National Plan of Emergency Organization (NPEO), a strategic document the country’s authorities drafted in 2021, foresees a reduction in ambulance intervention time to a maximum of 15 minutes for 90 to 95 percent of interventions. At the time when the plan was discussed, this was the case for just 78 percent of ambulance interventions. To enable such improvement, the plan foresees a 10 percent increase in operational costs. 

In last year’s interview with local broadcaster RTL, Paul Schroeder, the director general of the CGDIS, said that an intervention time capped at a maximum of 15 minutes could guarantee that Luxembourg’s hospitals have the required time to provide patients brought by ambulances with first aid, as stipulated by the NPEO. 

“In 90 to 95 percent of cases, we manage to do it in 20 minutes,” Schroeder said. “This means that the ambition behind the NPEO is to gain five more minutes.” 

By 2025, Luxembourg’s EMS system is to expand its operational capacities by ensuring a higher number of available ambulances, according to the director general of the CGDIS. 

“We are proposing to guarantee that 36 ambulances that we need every day are manned by a team [of EMS workers]. Today, this is the case for 29 ambulances,” the official said.

Luxembourg's EMS System

The SAMU has about 8,400 interventions per year, as indicated by data from the CGDIS.

Luxembourg’s EMS service historically operated at three regional hospital centers. These are located: in Ettelbruck, in the country’s northern part; in its capital Luxembourg City; and Esch-sur-Alzette, in Luxembourg's southern part. In 2019, after an internal study by the government recommended setting up a fourth base, the service opened a facility in Hesperange, in the country's southern part.  

With a population of about 626,000 inhabitants as of 2020, Luxembourg has the second smallest population among the European Union’s member states, preceded solely by Malta. This said the country’s demographic growth is driving the government’s plan to upgrade the capacities of its EMS system. Over 50 years, Luxembourg’s population grew by as much as 84 percent, largely as a result of the continuing influx of foreigners who currently comprise about 47 percent of the country’s inhabitants. Around 2060, the state’s population is expected to exceed the level of 1 million, as indicated by data collected by the authorities.   

Luxembourg’s EMS secured a major upgrade of its vehicle fleet in 2020 when the CGDIS ordered 34 new Mercedes-Benz Sprinter ambulances. A year later, the SAMU also received 10 new Mercedes-Benz GLE four-wheel-drive rapid intervention vehicles whose engines are enabled with a power of 200 kW (272 hp) to reinforce their capacities. 

Adding Electric Ambulances

Meanwhile, the nation's EMS capacities could be further modernized, as last year, the service started to test an electric ambulance. Made by German special vehicle maker Wietmarscher Ambulanz- und Sonderfahrzeuge (WAS), the vehicle is branded as the first world’s zero-emission box ambulance. 

The company’s WAS 500 Electric Ambulance is based on the Mercedes-Benz Sprinter, and Luxembourg’s EMS is one of Europe’s 20 services of this type to test its capacities, according to data from WAS. 

“With our electric ambulance, we are showing that the electric drive system is also a viable alternative for emergency vehicles with a high weight of up to 5.5 t[onnes]. Thanks to the intensive testing of our prototype within the ambulance service by more than 20 European ambulance organizations, we have been able to develop the WAS E-ambulance to production level,” the German special vehicle business said in a statement. “More than 20,000 service kilometers covered serve as proof of the reliability of this innovative drive concept for use in emergency vehicles.” 

The ambulance's electric engine is enabled with a maximum output of 147 kW which allows it to reach a maximum speed of 120 km/h (74.5 mph). The vehicle's producer says it has a range of up to 200 km (124 miles). 

“The E-Ambulance saves both money and time: on the one hand, the electric drive system is much more efficient than a diesel-driven vehicle,” according to WAS. “On the other hand, maintenance costs and downtime for oil changes and other maintenance measures, which are required for the secure running of a combustion engine, are no more. Components that are susceptible to faults, such as turbochargers or transmissions, are also completely done away with.”