The opening ceremony took place on 8 June 2022, with the participation of Deputy Secretary of State of the Ministry of Culture and Innovation, Dr. Attila Beneda, OMSZ Medical Director Dr. György Pápai, MGYA CEO Dr. Éva Gesztes, and the COO of the main sponsor, Masterplast Nyrt, Balázs Ács.
The Foundation for Hungarian Child Ambulance and the Hungarian National Ambulance Service have been jointly operating a child ambulance car seasonally (due to the increased number of incidents during the summer months) on the southern shore of Lake Balaton for 15 years.
“The need for a child ambulance car operating in Balatonlelle for years has been verified by the fact that they have provided help thousands of times. Therefore, opening a child ambulance station in Balatonlelle is an important milestone. Thanks to the new station, families can feel relaxed at Balaton, in safety even greater than before, knowing that in an emergency their children might get the highest quality medical care in the shortest possible time. The government regards the safety of families to be a priority, including health preservation and protection. Therefore, we respect and consider each health care professional (doctors, paramedics, volunteers) as a partner, who are doing generous and responsible work to help and protect families every day and during the summer holiday season,” said Deputy Secretary of State of the Ministry of Culture and Innovation, Dr. Attila Beneda.
“Every year, over 1.2 million cases are attended by the National Ambulance Service across the country, helping children over 40,000 times. All of our ambulance units must be on standby to care for young children or even newborn babies, but it is helpful that there are special child ambulance units that can provide the highest level of professional care if needed. Since 2007, the presence of The Foundation of Hungarian Child Ambulance in Balatonlelle has proved to be of great importance in the summer, that is why alerting professionals at such a modern ambulance station is an important step forward,”said National Ambulance Service medical director Dr. György Pápai.
“In 2020, the Foundation and its supporters decided to establish a modern child ambulance station to meet all requirements, and today we are opening it ceremoniously. The new station has a floor area of 140 m2, including a roofed ambulance parking, a car charging station, a car wash, a storage facility, comfortable relaxation rooms for staff, and a guest room for family members. A child-friendly examination room is also available for ambulant patients. The ambulance station cost the Foundation 75 million HUF, which was financed by the 1% tax donations, and contributions coming from companies and individuals,” explained the foundation’s CEO Dr. Éva Gesztes.
“For supporting the implementation of plans, the building materials produced and sold by us, MASTERPLAST, as the foundation’s main sponsor, were provided free of charge. Several partners of ours and other companies joined us, too, and we felt honoured to coordinate the project. The designs were prepared by NÉZ-BAU Kft., the construction was executed by Isoconstruct Kft, materials for the hard floor were donated by HAUFBAU Kft, while block paving bricks were provided by SW Umwelttechnik Magyarország Kft.,” said Masterplast Nyrt. COO Balázs Ács.
The Foundation thanked MC ALEC Kft. for donating their building engineering services, joiner Sándor Ősz for the complete kitchen furniture, Halker Kft for the household appliances, and Smarteq AV Solution for the medical examination equipment.
Several donations and help were offered to the Foundation by individuals, whose names are listed on the donation board placed at the station.
The foundation is to start this year’s Balaton service in a week when the school year ends.
Background information
THE FOUNDATION FOR HUNGARIAN CHILD AMBULANCE
This charitable foundation has been working hard for 17 years to modernize child ambulance services in Hungary. In cooperation with the National Ambulance Service, they operate child ambulance cars in several areas across the country. The foundation places emphasis on preventing accidents and educating people on first aid.
In the last 17 years, they have provided 35,000 infants and children with ambulance services and educated 38,000 parents with young children, nurses, students and teachers in courses available for free.
The foundation’s child ambulance services have been operating for 15 years seasonally, on the southern shore of Balaton, with a station based in Balatonlelle.
Dr. Éva Gesztes, CEO, The Foundation for Hungarian Child Ambulance
egesztes@mgya.org, +36 20 523 6190
HUNGARIAN NATIONAL AMBULANCE SERVICE
The National Ambulance Service (OMSZ) is a state health care institution that provides life-saving and emergency medical services. Apart from saving lives (answering emergency 112 calls), the OMSZ exclusively performs ambulance and guarded patient transports, which means tasks where the patient’s condition requires urgent care or medical intervention that must commence on the way to hospital.
Since its establishment in 1948, OMSZ has been operating as a merged organisation. 7,800 ambulance professionals are working in 254 ambulance stations across Hungary. In the last year, their ambulance units have provided medical care to nearly 1.1 million patients.
Pál Győrfi, Communications Director, National Ambulance Service
gyorfi.pal@mentok.hu +36 20 555 0303
Masterplast Nyrt.
Founded in 1997, the Masterplast group is one of the leading building material producer and distributor companies in the Central Eastern European region. The company group owns subsidiaries in 10 countries, and sells products in a further 30 countries. The company is registered in the premium category on the Budapest Stock Exchange, and had revenue of 145,2 million euros in 2023.