FG inaugurates emergency medical treatment committee

The Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole, has inaugurated an Emergency Medical Treatment (EMT) Committee and National Emergency Medical Services and Ambulance Scheme (NEMSAS) to provide an effective and Efficient Emergency Medical Services to Nigerians.

Mrs Boade Akinola, the Director, Media and Public Relation of the ministry, made this known in a statement issued on Wednesday in Abuja.

Adewole said the main mission of the committee was to use available resources and mobilise other resources, provide efficient emergency medical services with full national coverage as part of the Universal Health Coverage (UHC) for Nigeria.

“The key point here is that when treating Nigerians of injuries from road accidents, people should not border about who will pay the bills because under this scheme.

“Government is ready to take care of the entire Nigerian constituency,” Adewole said.

He noted that EMT was an important component of effective and comprehensive medical system which was long overdue.

The minister added that inauguration of the committee demonstrated a high sense of care by the federal government in that the system would offer efficient emergency services every Nigerian, when and where such services were required.

The minister charge the committee to create awareness about the scheme and ensure that they rendered emergency programme that Nigerians would be proud of.

The statement said the committee was chaired by the Minister of State for Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire.

It also quoted Ehanire as saying that that in addressing the health care system, loses occurring from trauma seemed to had fallen below the radar.

He added that a good number of lives lost could have been safe with effective emergency system on ground.

According to Ehanire, we must develop a good emergency medical system which if properly harnessed could save a lot of road users from unwarranted loses.

He said that a functional ambulance scheme was part of a functional medical care, as such a medical transportation system was basic for emergency medical service.

He added that a lot of disabilities from road accidents were due to poor road designs, lack of regular vehicle inspection, untrained drivers, among other factors.

Ehanire said the focus should therefore be on prevention “because if we focus on prevention, money would be saved. The first step lies with Road safety while the last lies with the doctors’’.

Members of the committee were drawn from 19 ministries departments and agencies such as Ministries of Health, Works, Information and Culture, Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Guild of Medical Directors.

Other members of the committee are the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Federal Fire Service, Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC), The Nigerian Police Force, among others.