SAMUR-Civil Protection
SAMUR-Civil Protection is a municipal, pre-hospital emergency medical service, composed of paid staff and volunteers, both uniformed and hierarchically organized.
It is part of the municipal organisational structure of the Madrid City Council, within the General Directorate of SAMUR-Civil Protection, affiliated to the General Coordination of Security, which is part of the Deputy Mayor's Office, Department of Spokesperson, Public Safety and Emergencies.
Administratively, SAMUR-Civil Protection (SAMUR-PC) is structured as a Sub-Directorate General with five departments.
Among its functions, it assumes a dual responsibility as an essential service, embodied in five services stated in our certified Service Charter:
As an Out-of-Hospital Medical Emergency Service, it assumes:
The provision of urgent and emergency medical care on the streets or public areas in the City of Madrid, ensuring, when necessary, the assisted transfer of those persons treated to nearby or referral hospitals. This includes emergency psychological care in situations of emotional impact at the site of the intervention or wherever necessary; and social and health care in situations of risk to vulnerable persons (child or elder abuse, gender-based violence, etc.).
As the City Council's Civil Protection Service, it is responsible for the study and prevention of situations of serious collective risk, extraordinary catastrophes or public calamity in which the lives and physical integrity of persons may be threatened on a massive scale, as well as the protection of these individuals and their property, in cases where such situations occur. To that end, it:
1. organises and manages the Civil Protection Volunteer Corps as the backbone resource of its function.
2. assesses and, where appropriate, addresses potential risk situations which may arise in the city.
3. educates and trains civil society (citizens and professionals) to be prepared to prevent and address these situations (emergencies and disasters)
4. assumes, when necessary, the coordination and response to these situations, providing sufficient trained human and material resources.
SAMUR-Civil Protection carries out these functions, aware that its purpose is precisely its commitment:
· to its users, to whom it is committed to providing the best possible public service based on a strong spirit of continuous improvement and the highest standards of ethical integrity.
· With the persons who carry out his/her functions therein, both paid-staff and volunteers, in whom the organisation pursues professional excellence which can only be attained through teamwork and the most challenging training.
· And with the Society itself, working towards its sustainability and embracing the values of responsibility and solidarity required for this purpose.
In summary, SAMUR Civil Protection is firmly committed to the City of Madrid, as embodied in its motto: commitment to life.
All of this is based on a solid organisation which considers quality management to be an inherent and unquestionable value, establishing an Integrated Management System that includes, within its scope, quality, environmental and emergency management requirements and incident response.
Within this management framework, the following elements which set Samur apart regarding quality of care: include a performance assessment system for its professionals in on-site medical care; process-based management (an entirely procedural activity), management by objectives for all its managers; and a scorecard with real-time measurement of indicators.
Other relevant factors in its medical care performance include the use of innovative medical techniques and joint performance and operational procedures with Madrid hospitals for the treatment of time-dependent pathologies.
Human Resources
SAMUR-Civil Protection has 930 paid staff: 129 physicians, 125 nurses, 644 emergency medical technicians, 7 psychologists, 1 sociologist, 1 pharmacist and 23 general administration personnel, as well as 1,147 volunteers (as of December 31st, 2024)
History of the Service
In 1989, given the need to create a pre-hospital emergency service in the City of Madrid, the City Council decided to set up a team for the study, design and commissioning of that service.
Building from the former traditional Municipal Ambulance Park, created in 1875, new ambulance models were designed, telecommunications were updated with a new radio telephone exchange, new uniforms were designed, and personnel selection and training were improved. Finally, the service with its current philosophy saw the light of day as a pilot project in June 1991.
Later, in December 1992, after verifying the benefits of its implementation, it was decided to confer to this service the category of Medical Transport Section, better known by the acronym SAMUR (Municipal Emergency Assistance and Rescue Service).
The objective of this service is to quickly and effectively respond to medical emergencies which occur on public roads within the municipality of Madrid. This parts company with the inherited traditional "scoop and run" legacy and philosophy, replaced by “patient care at the scene of the incident and assisted medical transport". Furthermore, the Service assumed responsibilities related to the medical management and resolution of potential disasters which may occur in the City of Madrid.
In 1995, SAMUR became SAMUR-Civil Protection and acquired other responsibilities such as first aid training for citizens and the provision of preventive services coverage.
The Sub-directorate General of SAMUR-Civil Protection was created by a decree of the Mayor of Madrid on June 24th, 2004, which established the organisation, structure and powers of the Government Department of Safety and Community Services.
Subsequently, and by virtue of the Decree June 29th, 2023, of the Governing Board of the City of Madrid, on the organisation and powers of the Deputy Mayor's Office, Department
of Spokesperson, Public Safety and Emergencies, the Directorate General of SAMUR-Civil Protection was created.