SMUR

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A SMUR intervention: the ambulance, already on the scene, has called for the mobile medical unit which has arrived to provide physician-level care to the patient before his transfer to hospital.

SMUR team practising a Defibrillation.

SMUR is an acronym for Service Mobile d'Urgence et de Réanimation ("Emergency and Ressucitation Mobile Service"). It designates specialised EMS services in France, Belgium and Switzerland, and in other French-speaking countries. They are mobile medical units designed to provide emergency care to patients on the scene of an accident or malaise, and also to transport patients in need of medical attention. The first SMUR was created in Paris in 1956 by Professor Maurice Cara (hôpital Necker) to transport patients from one hospital to another with life support during a poliomyelitis epidemic.

In France, SMURs are one component of the organism in charge of the emergency chain (SAU, Service spécialisé d'Accueil et de traitement des Urgences). A mobile unit is composed by an emergency physician (or sometimes an anesthetist), a nurse and a paramedic. The vehicle might be an ambulance, a car or a helicopter. In some cases, SMUR units can also operate inside a hospital, in case of life-threatening emergencies in a department.

In France, SMUR vehicles and personnel are labelled "SAMU", which is actually the fixed central coordination system which managed mobile SMUR units. This induces some confusion in the public as to what these organisations exactly are. SMUR units wear the Star of Life.

For more information regarding the intervention doctrine, see SAMU and Emergency medical service: Prehospital Care Strategies.