Developing a Pre-Hospital Emergency Care System

Ambulance services are crucial in providing medical care and transportation during emergencies. These services have saved countless lives by delivering timely medical attention and transporting patients to hospitals. Global Emergency Care (GEC) recognizes the importance of a functional ambulance service in communities and is committed to supporting Uganda’s effort to provide quality pre-hospital healthcare.

The Ugandan government, through the Ministry of Health (MOH), GEC, and other partners, is currently refining the model to scale up the training of ambulance personnel nationwide. This initiative aims to fulfill the MOH's vision of rapidly building a pre-hospital care system over the next few years Uganda.

To address this need, GEC’s Emergency Care Providers (ECP) have been serving at the national ambulance service center in Kampala. Over the past 11 months, they have provided full-time coverage for the ambulances, treating and improving the outcomes of more than 486 critically ill patients and thereby preventing mortality during transit to referral health facilities.

Emergency medical services (EMS) are an integral part of emergency care and crucial for the provision of immediate medical care in the pre-hospital setting. To assure an appropriate response, proper planning of EMS infrastructure is paramount. An increasing year-on-year utilization of emergency ambulances over the past years has been reported in many developed countries. In order to provide an adequate number of mobile EMS units it is important to monitor the use of pre-hospital EMS and to respond to changing patterns. It is also important that adequate care is delivered while on ambulance in both, urban and rural areas. Global Emergency Care (GEC)andtheUganda Ministry of Health (MOH) and other partnersare currentlyrefiningthemodeltoscale-uptraining of ambulance human Resourcenationwide to be able tofulfillthevisionofthe MOH torapidlybuilda pre- hospitalcaresystemoverthenextfewyears.

Addressing the above problem, GEC Emergency Care Practitioners (ECP) are currently serving in two week rotations on the national ambulance service center in Kampala, providing full time coverage for the ambulances with a focus on responding to the most critical cases, In the 2rd quarter of 2024, 84 critically ill patients were cared for by the ECPs while on ambulance and all had a positive outcome.