The Federal Government will launch the emergency ambulance services’ pilot program on Friday in Abuja to ease access to first aid and medical care in critical situations.
This was announced today in Abuja by Dr. Felix Ogedegbe, Chairman of the National Emergency Medical Treatment Committee (NEMTC), at a bi-weekly ministerial media conference that was moderated by Dr. Osagie Ehanire, Minister of Health.
According to him, the National Emergency Medical Service and Ambulance System (NEMSAS) committee was established four years ago with the mission of developing a Nigerian ambulance service.
He stated that the goal was to get Nigeria to the point where it could join other countries around the world that have national emergency medical services.
Ogedegbe said that with this system, Nigerians that need emergency medical care could call a three-digit number and have the response made to them immediately.
The chairman said that the nation was known for negative health indices leading to high mortality rates, which most times were as a result of the inability to access medical care on time.
“It is therefore known that the way the Western countries or other countries have reduced these mortality figures and improved outcomes has been to make sure that there is a virile and active emergency medical service.
”The services will come to the aid of citizens whenever they need urgent emergency care.
“That has been a goal that has been bought the Minister of Health has personally learned to make sure that NEMSAS takes off in the country and becomes one of those established health entities that naturally provide care in Nigeria.”
Ogedegbe said that several trials had been carried out in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) as the pilot state and that a call to 112 goes straight to the emergency communication centre which then goes to the medical dispatch system to get the ambulance to respond to the emergency.
“This is going to happen in the FCT and certain private and public hospitals working together in unison were picked as emergency treatment centres and certain private and public emergency ambulance service providers have also been picked.
“There are key issues here. People who are at risk of death or disability do not have to pay at the point of need.
“They have to have the ability to call on the ambulance and be attended to and we hope and pray that all of the lessons that we will learn from the pilot phase will be used to then roll out this scheme in the rest of the country.”
He, however, urged all states to emulate the readiness of the FCT and ensure all requisite structures and new medicines are proficient and empowered in an expedited rollout.
NEMSAS is the operational arm of the third disbursement gateway, as designated in the National Health Act (NHA), with 5% of the Basic Healthcare Provision Fund for Emergency Medical Treatment earmarked to provide Nigerians with urgent health care.
It addresses a serious flaw in Nigeria’s health system, which makes no provision for physical or financial access to First Aid and healthcare in the event of any type of life-threatening emergency.
In addition, in February, the Federal Ministry of Health signed a multi-sectoral Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) and launched the NEMSAS Implementation Manual.
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