SMURD has begun it's activity as a completely volunteer service. In 1990, this was highly unusual and has brought up a series of reactions from the authorities and unions, which have considered volunteer work somewhat synonym to amateurism. However, after a few years of service, it was fully proven that volunteer work can also mean a high level of professionalism. Without our volunteers, physicians, medical assistants, students and others neither SMURD nor the Emergency Department would have existed today. Lately, even though a part of our staff is full-time employed, volunteer work still is one of the main reasons of our functioning at this high standard. Only in 1999, 47% of the total of working hours in our Emergency Department was unpaid working time provided by volunteers or by paid personnel on volunteer unpaid overtime. Therefore, we consider our service to be a service relying on volunteer work, since without this aspect, our working standard and provided services would be highly affected.