Good morning and welcome,

When I arrived at the Tivoli Hotel & Congress Center just a short while ago I was met by a little four year old girl, her name is Elvira.

When Elvira was 1, she was home with her Nanny and whilst having a little snack – a piece of an apple that she was eating got stuck in her throat. Suddenly Elvira couldn’t breathe and suffered a sudden cardiac arrest.

Elvira’s life could have ended here, but luckily Elvira‘s nanny, Lærke was a brave and resourceful girl in her twenties. 

Lærke realized immediately the emergency and dialed 1-1-2. At the medical dispatch center a nurse guided Lærke to perform CPR, and kept guiding Lærke as she continued resuscitation.  

Lærke didn’t stop until the doorbell signaled the arrival of the ambulance and the emergency physician.

The emergency personal took over from Lærke and continued the CPR on the way to the hospital. Upon arrival Elvira and Lærke were met by an alerted and informed team of specialists.

Today, Elvira is a happy four year old – and is a testament to the fact that pre-hospital emergency care and emergency medical services is a critical life-saving system. 

All of you know of such stories. Many of you have probably been in similar situations, and I’m sure some of you have saved a life - or more. Having the knowledge and capacity to do that, is a gift to not only the individual, whose life has been saved, but also for our societies. 

It is a great pleasure for me to be here today, and open the first European Emergency Medical Services Congress here in Copenhagen.

Emergency Medical Services (EMS) have changed rapidly in recent years. Just a decade ago – ‘scoop and run’ would have been the answer in most emergency situations. Time is critical and the most important task for EMS was to get the patient to the hospital as fast as possible.

This approach has changed, and today pre-hospital care is now seen as more important than ever.

Time is STILL critical, but with longer distance to highly specialized care, treatment often starts pre-hospital and in many cases on the call to 112, medical dispatch. 

All over the world:
Whenever a loved one,
a friend or a colleague,
a relative or stranger 
is in need of emergency care - we call the Emergency Medical Services.

And even though we know, in a life-threatening situation, that EMS are on their way, those minutes seem like an eternity until we hear the sound of sirens, and the professionals take control of the situation.

Over the next couple of days, you will discuss treatments, quality of service and the common challenges facing Emergency Medical Services all over the world.

This congress provides an outstanding opportunity to learn from the newest knowledge and science from around the world and share evidence, best-practice and new solutions to the benefit of not only EMS, but to the people who NEED EMS.

Elvira’s story reminds us how fragile life is, and her story shows us without a doubt that it takes a system to save a life.    

EMS2016 is all about that.

I wish you all a successful congress!