Within a ten-month period, more than 2,400 emergency calls have been responded to in Region Four by the Emergency Medical Service (EMS) in Guyana. Director of the EMS in Guyana, Dr Zulfikar Bux, explained that Region Four — being the pilot area — constitutes a significant percentage of the population, hence
Emergency Medical Service (EMS) Guyana Medical Director Dr Zulfikar Bux
the necessity of the service.
“As it stands right now, we have managed to respond to 2,400 calls. Some of the cases would have been accident victims (and) fire victims; some of (the calls) included prisoners who were injured. Also, (there were calls) along the line of maternal and child health cases. So we have had the spectrum of emergencies, and the EMTs (Emergency Medical Technicians) have done a good job in actually delivering the patients to the hospitals in a timely manner,” Dr. Bux clarified.
In his report of the EMS’ performance as at September 2017, Dr. Bux told the Department of Public Information (DPI) that the service, initially launched in November 2016, is expected to expand countrywide within a five-year period.
“Our plan is to expand by the end of the year (2017) to two more ambulances, so we will have five ambulances covering the Georgetown area. Next year, we plan to expand to the West (Coast) of Berbice (Region Five) and West (Coast) of Demerara (Region Three).”
The importance of this service has been emphasised by the effective and efficient pre-hospital care being offered to persons in the event of medical emergencies. Sharing his thoughts on the report, Dr. Bux added, “It’s working well, so far. I think we have proven with the model given that, with just three ambulances within the past months, we have managed to respond to 2,400 calls.”
With this data, Dr Bux explained that the EMS in Guyana would continue to collaborate with the Vanderbilt Medical Centre in the USA to ensure that the model is improved and a quality standard is achieved and maintained moving forward.
