Emergency medical services in Iceland

They provide all emergency ambulance service for a population of in excess of 320,000 people in one of the most sparsely settled countries in Europe.

In larger centres, such as Reykjavík, the ambulances are staffed by full-time, paid Emergency medical technicians.

[4] Paramedics are usually found only in Reykjavík, which operates a single, Advanced Life Support ambulance with a crew of three.

Because of the sparse population, bad weather, and large numbers of airports, most air ambulance service in Iceland is accomplished using fixed-wing aircraft.

Mýflug has one dedicated air ambulance in Iceland, based at Akureyri, the site of the country's second largest hospital.

When weather conditions or other circumstances make fixed-wing inappropriate, the system has access to three helicopters (Aerospatiale Dauphin or Super Puma) operated by the Icelandic Coast Guard, and based at Reykjavík.

This represents, however, only the 5 percent of EMS personnel in the entire country who are paramedics, and only a single ambulance, out of 77 units in service.

The Icelandic Parliament has assigned responsibility for oversight to the various local health authorities,[10] and, as a result, there is considerable variation in permissible skills.