Mother Helpage is proud to include as part of its sustainable programme, a free ambulance service.
Many parts of the developing world (or low and middle-income countries) do not have adequate road infrastructure and enough transportation vehicles which mean that many areas are difficult to access and remote. People are often living in poor conditions and/or within disaster zones and do not have access to the level of care they need. Poverty, remoteness, lack of sanitisation, malnutrition, floods, earthquake, conflicts, Covid-19 mean that they are more vulnerable to life threatening illnesses and diseases if left untreated.
In addition, many developing countries lack the connected and complex healthcare infrastructure, including emergency medical services that we in the West benefit from and that are required to cater for the health needs of the population. Although most of the private hospitals have their own ambulance, the patient is charged for their use of services (based on the distance covered). As a result, those countries have a higher number of deaths which could easily be prevented. Research has also found that the utilisation of resources is often inefficient and leads to shortage of available vehicles and larger response time.
Our free ambulance, multi-vehicle, project is designed to provide out of hospital acute medical care and/or transportation to the most vulnerable populations suffering with illness or injury. It aims to give a lifeline they so desperately need and access to treatment when emergencies arise or their health requires it. Families and individuals no longer have to struggle financially to pay for it or go without. The main objective of our project is to reach out to those patients in critical situations who are geographically isolated and cannot afford paid transportation to the particular hospital they need.
Our vehicles are equipped with oxygen cylinders, Multipara Patient Monitor devices (for monitoring a patient’s vital signs). We also work closely with local hospitals who assign us paramedics in critical situations to carry out first emergency care on the patient. Having trained medical staff in our ambulances as first responders is an essential part of our service: it prevents chaos and saves critical time.
We continuously strive to improve our efficiency, delivery, patient’s satisfaction and, most of all, reduce patient’s waiting time. To this end, we work to allocate promptly emergency vehicles to call locations, find the nearest hospital, identify the best routes and provide on-site critical emergency care by using available technology, equipment and human resources most effectively and efficiently.
Response time is our key driver: the shorter the time to get to the patient and administer first care, the higher the chances of survival. This is particularly relevant in case of trauma-related emergencies, heart attack or stroke for example.
As well as providing emergency care, our medline project serves patients who cannot afford to hire an ambulance to travel from their residence to the hospital for routine treatment and from the hospital back to their homes, also those who require to be transferred from one hospital to another to get the specialised care they need.
A phone call is all it takes to access life saving care within minutes.
Mother Helpage Ambulance programme contributes to public safety by reducing the mortality and morbidity rate. It ensures that as many people as possible have access to health care, the support and compassion they need and deserve regardless of where they live, their identity, religion or economic status. Over the years, we have built a strong reputation within the local healthcare sector as well as within the local communities. We have made it a priority to cultivate and maintain good relations with all our stakeholders in targeted areas.
