The Ministry of Health is set to launch 16 regional ambulance call and dispatch centres at various regional referral hospitals across the country.
This initiative, to be implemented through the E-Emergency Medical Services strategy aims to ensure prompt responses to medical emergencies and the extension of healthcare services to every health facility.
Emmanuel Ainebyoona, the Ministry of Health spokesperson tells KFM that the project has already been piloted in Masaka and Mbale.
“With that, we want to ensure that at least in every region we have ambulances that are equivalent with the constituencies,” Ainebyoona said.
He adds that the ministry has already acquired more than 50 ambulances, awaiting commissioning by President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni.
The establishment of a functional National Ambulance Service is one of the top priorities of Uganda’s Ministry of Health (MoH). It is embedded in the National Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Policy and Strategy, National Development plan III and President Museveni’s Manifesto 2021-2025.
The National EMS system includes the following three levels of care:
Response at the scene of emergency; which includes transportation with care; response at the health facility level and critical care.
The approval of the EMS policy by the Cabinet and subsequent launch of EMS Policy and The Strategic Plan has paved way for systematic development of EMS in the Country.
In addition, the MOH has taken the response to the highway road traffic crashes as one of the key outputs of the Emergency care response team. Annually Uganda lose over 3,500 people due to road traffic crashes.
