Medical interventions of the Fire Service during the COVID-19 pandemic in Poland

INTRODUCTION: The rescue services which take interventions in the scene of accidents include the Fire Service officers. The tasks of the Fire Service carried out to serve the society include the cooperation with units of the Emergency Medical Services and performance of medical operations. The spreading of the COVID-19 pandemic led to many changes in daily public and private life, in the functioning of institutions, public offices, the healthcare system and the uniformed services. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The study included a retrospective analysis of departures of Polish fire-fighting units (FFU) for isolated events of medical emergency (IEMEs) in a two-year period: from March 2019 to the end of February 2021 (one year before the pandemic and one year during the pandemic in Poland). The data come from the EWID event recording programme and the Decision-Making Support System of the State Fire Service. The quantitative data were prepared depending on the distribution of the variable: the mean and the standard deviation (if the distribution was normal) and the median and the interquartile range (if the distribution was not normal). RESULTS: The studied period included 5272 events meeting the criteria for inclusion in the analysis. An increase by over 56% was seen in IEMEs in the pandemic year compared to the previous year. The dynamics of the IEME increase are identical to the waves of the pandemic occurring in Poland. A statistically significant correlation (p