For a country which pursues rapid industrialization and construction process, the expansion of quality emergency care services cannot be a matter of choice. It rather is an issue of ensuring occupational safety standards as well.
In view of this, Ethiopian Society of Emergency Medicine Professionals (ESEP) held a conference recently. And the research papers presented during the event widely touch up on ways and means of boosting the service provision.
Almost all paper presenters stressed the need for the preparation of a well organized and efficient emergency response system in every health intuitions.
Dr. Aklilu Azazh is president of ESEP. He makes clear that the country’s emergency response efforts are still at progeny. “We have only a decade old experience in the sub-sector.”
But thanks to the public private partnership (PPP), a considerable amount of improvements have been made over the decade, he indicates. “Most health professionals did not have formal training on critical health care and trauma situations. These days, most of them can properly and efficiently respond to any kind of emergency situation.”
The government has also attached due priority to emergency response efforts by availing the required financial resource, equipment and trainings, he hints.
However, he did not eschew from mentioning the fact that many people are still dying from improper handling of causalities at the scene of accidents. This is owing to scarcity of skilled personnel, Dr. Aklilu notes.
Having understood this gap, the Society has offered pre-hospital care trainings to to 1,753 health professionals who have been drawn from 94 state and referral hospitals.
The Society’s training also targets potential institutions that handle emergency situations. Thus, personnel from higher education institutions, hotels and emergency ambulance and fire units have taken part in the trainings.
In addition, the Society has left its imprints on the sector through involving in several policy drafting tasks.
As emergencies may unfold anytime and anywhere, private and public institutions can contribute more by forging strong partnership to efficiently address the situations, he suggests.
“On top of this, we have plans to scale up our best practices to State health institutions and health professionals.”
Chief of Academic Affairs with Addis Ababa Burn Emergency Medicine and Trauma Hospital of St. Paul’s Hospital Millennium Medical College, Dr. Ayalew Zewde, also builds on the issue under discussion.
He says: “Despite the well furnished and equipped emergency rooms and skilled practitioners of our hospital, the efficiency of our works largely depends on the way victims are evacuated from the scene of causalities.”
Pre-hospital care services will help save the lives of victims. Therefore, the proper handling of victims and their safe evacuation from the scenes will reduce further health complications, he adds.
Emergency care has already been integrated to the national health and education systems, he revels. This will help meet the human capital demand both in the short and long-term.
It also contributes to the quality care service delivery as students at early levels will be familiar with the issue.
“Our hospital has been offering training to various other health institutions aiming at enhancing the quality of the service.”
Dr. Hiwot Engida works as Emergency Care Medicine Director with Tikur Anbessa Specialized Hospital. She says the Hospital is a center of excellence in emergency health care services.
She commends on the progresses made so far in enhancing the quality of the care service. But, the service has to expand more than any time before to make the service more accessible.
“Lack of human capital and modern facility is among the challenges we are facing,” she says.
She also hopes that a new complex under construction on the premise of Hospital will have modern emergency rooms.
Hiwot also hails the growing public private partnership which is helping fill gaps relating to equipment and quality service provision. “Tebita Ambulance is one of the private firms that have been contributing its share in maintaining a cutting edge in the emergency care technological advancement.”
Health emergencies are extremely growing, being one of the major public health problems, in both developed and developing countries, points out Dr. Daniel Gebremicheal, State Minister’s Office Director with the Ministry of Health.
Injuries due to accidents and violence are major public health problems, killing more than 250, 000 people in the EU -27 each year and disabling many more.
Although injuries are known to be preventable, still it continues to be a widespread health threats, he adds. “In Ethiopia, despite government’s efforts to reduce causalities, it constitutes around half of all surgical emergencies.”
In response to it, the government has developed national health care quality strategy to arrest the rate of death and injuries from causalities. He also casts hope in that AaBET efforts will bring concrete changes.
Pre-hospital care reduces risk of death by 25 percent for injured patients. This service begins from promoting the emergency call center to the community and includes the coordination of various stakeholders, he stresses.
More than anything else, there should be a proper dispatch of ambulances in all places, he indicates. “Currently, ambulance dispatch in 2012/13 stood at 334,758. Last year, it hit over 2.1 million,” he discloses.
With a view to reducing material mortality, each district of the nation has been provided with ambulance. This experience needs to get expanded to access paramedical services in all places in the county.
Above all, transport and tourism service providers, educational intuitions, religious institutions… have to assign focal persons and need to receive adequate trainings on first aids.