An ambulance is a medically-equipped vehicle used to transport patients to treatment facilities, such as hospitals. Typically, out-of-hospital medical care is provided to the patient during the transport. Ambulances are used to respond to medical emergencies by emergency medical services (EMS), and can rapidly transport paramedics and other first responders, carry equipment for administering emergency care, and transport patients to hospital or other definitive care. Most ambulances use a design based on vans or pickup trucks, though others take the form of motorcycles, buses, limousines, aircraft and boats.
A Ford E-Series ambulance with its emergency lights on in Boston, Massachusetts, United States
Early car-based ambulances, such this 1948 Cadillac Meteor, were sometimes also used as hearses.
Elizabeth II (then Princess) next to a British Army ambulance in 1945
A New York City Fire Department ambulance bus in 1949
Emergency medical services
Emergency medical services (EMS), also known as ambulance services or paramedic services, are emergency services that provide urgent pre-hospital treatment and stabilisation for serious illness and injuries and transport to definitive care. They may also be known as a first aid squad, FAST squad, emergency squad, ambulance squad, ambulance corps, life squad or by other initialisms such as EMAS or EMARS.
Chicago Fire Department paramedics transporting a patient on a stretcher
A drawing of one of Larrey's ambulances volantes
A horse-drawn Bellevue Hospital ambulance in New York City, 1895
A Royal Navy ambulance during World War I