Press Releases

Budapest, November 3, 2010 10:30

Those who call or send SMS messages to the 1788 Telekom Donation Line number in November or December 2010 donate to the Hungarian Foundation for Pediatric Emergency Care.

The Hungarian Foundation for Pediatric Emergency Care has set up the first pediatric ambulance car with a pediatric emergency care specialist physician on board (ACP) in Hungary in 2005. Since then, the vehicle, run jointly with the National Ambulance Service, has responded to more than 6000 calls. The ACP responds to calls received by the 104 emergency number involving the most seriously injured or sick children. The car is on call 12 hours a day in Budapest, and others have also been available in Győr since January, and seasonally at Balatonlelle for the past three years. The vehicles cover areas of a 60-80-kilometer radius. The long-term goal of the Foundation is to have one ACP in each (altogether seven) region covered by the National Ambulance Service.

The ACP is a passenger car transformed into a specialized emergency care unit, carrying an (emergency care) specialist physician and the most sophisticated, state-of-the-art emergency care technology. ACPs are based at specific hospitals. In most cases they are alerted to respond together with the nearest ambulance service vehicles, and arrive first on the scene to start immediate specialist intervention. The emergency care specialist physician arriving at the scene with the ACP helps to stabilize the child, then either leaves it to the care of the ambulance service vehicle for transportation or transfers the necessary equipment into the ambulance vehicle to transform it into a mobile intensive care unit and accompanies the patient on the way to the hospital. As ACPs are passenger cars, they can arrive at the scene sooner than traditional ambulance vehicles, and are equipped with the total range of different sizes of devices, thus, enabling to care for and medicate children of any age groups.
ACP staff consists of two people: an emergency care physician and a paramedic, who also serves as driver. Currently 31 pediatricians (whose main employment is with hospitals) serve on the ACPs round the year.

The objective set by the Hungarian Foundation for Pediatric Emergency Care is to improve pediatric emergency care in Hungary. With the support of the Foundation, an increasing number of children can receive state-of-the-art first aid and emergency care.

It also organizes free-of-charge first aid courses for the benefit of parents, kindergarten and school teachers, as well as healthcare employees to educate them about the latest developments in the relevant theory and practice.
The Foundation is financed by donations from individuals and companies, as well as grants won through application. You can read more about the Foundation and its activities at www.mgya.org.


As a leading ITC provider, Magyar Telekom deems it important to support the improvement of healthcare in Hungary and the development of the services in this area, including pediatric emergency care. Telekom's Donation Line, also known as "1788 - the human call", has been accessible for calls initiated from Magyar Telekom's fixed line and mobile networks for the past eight years. The fee for a call or an SMS message is HUF 100, which is free of VAT (with the exceptions of calls initiated with Domino top-up cards). The total amount raised as a result of the calls initiated during November, December 2010 will be transferred to the Hungarian Foundation for Pediatric Emergency Care, who shall use the money thus received to purchase a new defibrillator/EKG/monitor (resuscitation device) system.