O’Ambulance: From Basic To Advanced Cardiac Life Saving

 

Ismaeel Uthman

O’Ambulance (Osun Ambulance Service) is an household name in Osun State. Apart from Osun Youth Empowerment Scheme (OYES), O’Ambulance remains the most popular legacy of former governor of the State, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola. It is an initiative that is beneficial to vast majority of the people of the state, saving lives round the clock. 

The service which was launched on February 4, 2013 is a pivot of one of the six-point Integral Action Plan of Aregbesola in promoting healthy living among the people. The agency was christened after ambulance due to the nature of the services to render. 

Ambulance, according to medical experts’ analysis, does the most life-saving act; it aids the patient to reach the hospital on time and works as a life-saving solution. Ambulances play a dominant role to rescue accident victims, injured and ill peoples and ease the stress of transportation to the hospital. It saves lives!

The agency has been rechristened Osun Emergency Medical Services And Ambulance System (OSEMSAS), due to its upgrade, efficiency and to key into the National Emergency Medical Services And Ambulance System (NEMSAS) model. The agency, according to its General Manager, Dr Segun Babatunde, was rated the best in the country by a team of the Federal Ministry of Health which came this year to evaluate the service. Babatunde is hopeful that Osun will be part of the piloting states for NEMSAS. 

Currently, the agency operates with 40 Ambulances spread across the state for a 24/7 service delivery. “All services are free and our response time is between five to 10 minutes. Our service is 24/7 round the clock”, said Babatunde in an interview with OSUN DEFENDER on Tuesday. 

Restructuring The Agency

OSEMSAS has undergone different restructuring processes to ensure that it continues its mandate of saving lives. This has resulted into efficient delivery of services and management of resources. 

Explaining the recent restructuring of the agency, Babatunde said: “When I got here, we had to carry out a need assessment. The need assessment talked about the gap between the then current situation and the desired destination. We did an evaluation on how well we were doing, what we were not doing right and the desired level in terms of service delivery, facilities and so on. 

“What we discovered was that the number of units (ambulance stations) we had from inception was far more than what we needed. We reduced the units to what we need. There were some units that did not operate for a whole year. We used to have 49 units; one per local government and the area office and 18 across the highways in Osun. The need assessment gave us the performance of all the units and we discovered that there were some areas we do not need units at all. We collapsed the units in those areas and looked for a Primary Health Care Centre that was very busy in the area and post a tricycle ambulance there.”

The restructuring also birthed technical and operations departments which led to the improvement of service delivery. “There was no record of our personnel and equipment when I came on board. I created a file for our personnel and properties to know what we had and it gave us a clear picture of we needed. There was no website before, we created one and people can see what we are doing. We also started partnerships with private hospitals which was not there before I came in”, said Babatunde. 

Explaining the need to partner the private hospitals, Babatunde said: “We discovered then that if the victims we rescued do not have money or relative to run around for them at public hospitals, the healthcare providers will not attend to them. But that is not the case at the private hospitals, they will take care of the victims.”

The restructuring also brought out Basic Medical Emergency Pack which contains medical consumable needed to attend to any emergency patient at the hospital. Babatunde noted that the pack has improved the agency’s partnership with hospitals and helped in reducing the death of medical emergency victims.

Operations And Personnel

On operations and personnel, Babatunde said: “We got punctuality on the part of our personnel right; we got training right, we got medical consumables supply right and our vehicles repair right. Our response time was the last thing we got right. Anywhere in the state, our personnel will be at the call of need between five and 10 minutes. 

“We have 40 vehicles. The ones that are actively working are 35. Even though they are old and the cost of maintenance is high, I can tell you that we are doing well. We need new Ambulances to reduce our cost of maintenance. 

“We have 300 personnel. These personnel are paramedics and drivers. We have the technical, monitoring and other staff. The appointment of our personnel is based on adhocracy. Our personnel are not permanent staff. They are adhoc and there are conditions given to them. 

“The agency, giving the kind of job we are doing, cannot afford non-experts and people without proper training. That is why we recruited the personnel based on merit without any interference from anyone. Our training has been quarterly and we have enjoyed the support of the governments right from the initiator of the programme, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola to the present administration which has been fantastic.”

The Challenges

Asked about the challenges facing the agency, Babatunde identified funding, vehicles and medical consumables as areas needing serious improvement to enhance the service of the agency.

He said: “We need more funding and equipment. Presently we are operating at Basic Life Saving. The government just got an Ambulance for us that can launch us to Advanced Cardiac Life Saving. We need to fully move from Basic to Advanced. 

“Our staff also need better remuneration in terms of salary. With how the country is now, they need their salaries to be jacked up. 

“We also need support from nongovernmental organisations, individuals and charity organisations. The government cannot do it alone. People can assist the agency by procuring ambulance and medical consumables.”

Babatunde said politics or change of government has not affected the operations of the agency. 

“This is a service delivery agency and politics has never affected us. We have resisted every attempt to politicise the agency. The governors have always placed premium on the optimal service delivery of the agency. I’m sure Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola will be happy seeing what the agency has become now.  It is one of the biggest legacies that he has and will be proud of at any time”, he stated.  

Figure of Beneficiaries

Asked about the number of accident victims the agency has rescued and the delivery taken, Babatunde said over 22,560 accident victims have been rescued between 2013 and 2023. Similarly, no fewer than 1,203 pregnant women were delivered of babies by the service within its 10 years of operation. This is just as the agency has facilitated referral of 14,000 of the 22,560 rescued accident victims within 10 years of his existence.

On the hazard of the job, Babatunde said “A lot of our personnel have been attacked in the course of their duties. Though it is reducing now, it was too much in the past. People get emotional and reacted angrily, taking their anger out on our people. It is reducing now and we keep telling our people to always give way for an ambulance when on the road, because the person the ambulance is rescuing may be your family. 

“Also, I will appeal to the public that whenever an emergency happens, we should not start doing videos or taking photos. The proper thing to do is to call the ambulance and when the personnel arrive, allow them to do their job because they are professionals who have been trained.” 

On the status of the agency, Babatunde proudly said: “We are the best in the country and most of the things the National Emergency Medical Service and Ambulance System created by the Federal Government is trying to do now are things we have been doing years ago. 

“The focused areas of our services are prompt provision of emergency medical services to the victims of road accidents and evacuating them to the nearest hospital, provision of quality referral services for patients from one hospital to another, depending on the specialist services required and provision of emergency medical services in medical emergency situations anywhere anytime within the state.”

The Vision

He envisioned that in the next five years, OSEMSAS will be the best in the area of Advanced Cardiac Life Saving. He said: “In the next five years, my ambition for the agency is it becoming the best in the area of Advanced Cardiac Life Saving. We are doing well in Basic Life Saving but we want to move forward and compete with what we get in the United States. The present Governor just bought an ambulance for us, it is a mobile intensive care unit that can launch us to Advanced Cardiac Life Saving operations. We need to fully move to Advanced Cardiac Life Saving. “I want the Agency to be able to capture and deliver on any form of emergency that may occur, so that nobody in the state will die of a treatable emergency. 

“Presently, we are working on having the register of all the doctors in Osun state and their area of specialisation so that when we pick a patient, we will be able to call the doctor who is in the best position to treat the patient. 

“What we do now is to pick patients and drop them off at the hospital but now, we want to move forward and make sure every patient that our agency picks comes out well. I also want to advise our people to key into the Osun Health Insurance Scheme to enjoy our service fully. Keying into it is like paying for the rainy days.