Emergency Medical Services now available in New Amsterdam

Emergency Medical Services (EMS) are now available in New Amsterdam, Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne), following an official launch thereof on Friday.
During that launch, Director of National Emergency, Dr Zulfikar Bux, referred to the EMS as being a very complex integrated system, with quite a lot of planning to ensure that it works very well.

“How it works is that if a member of the public has a medical emergency, as it stands currently, you will have to get the public-spirited citizen, a relative, or someone to get a taxi or a vehicle and take you to the hospital. Studies have shown that this is not the most efficient and effective way, and lives are impacted negatively. Lives are lost because of not having systems in place to respond to these kinds of emergencies; whether it is an accident, heart attack, or maybe some situations where someone is injured in the public domain,” he explained.
“Emergency Medical Services covers this aspect of life-saving intervention, that is needed in any part of the world,” he added.
The EMS Director pointed out that the unit would be collaborating with the Regional Health Services.

“So, if you are getting a heart attack, these specially trained Emergency Medical Technicians will come to your home and start the process of resuscitation, and administer basic care; and they will communicate that to (officers in) an emergency room and nurses, so that they are ready to accept you, and (are) prepared to help start interventions that would save your life,” he detailed.
Dr Bux noted that during what is termed ‘the golden hour’, interventions are often needed to save lives.
“Quite a lot of times in Guyana, we don’t get patients within that first hour because of the challenges to get patients stabilized, extracted, and transferred. This will change that challenge that we currently have,” he explained.

EMT services were first introduced to Guyana in 2016 as Guyana Fire and Emergency Medical Services, which is a collaboration between the Guyana Fire Service and the National Emergency Medical Services office of the Ministry of Health. The aim is to deliver an integrated form of emergency medical response, with the Fire Department taking care of operations and administrative responsibilities, while medical policies – which include the training and certification of the EMT to per-hospital medical care – are the responsibility of the Health Ministry through the National Emergency Medical Services office.
Since the programme was launched in 2016, over 30,000 emergencies were responded to by the EMS unit. Those include close to 100 babies being delivered in the ambulance, four such incidents having occurred in the past month.
EMT services are available in Georgetown and its environs in Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica); and in Region Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara), Region Five (Mahaica-Berbice), and now in Region Six.
“That is saving a mother’s life and saving a child’s life at the same time.” Rose Hall Town is expected to benefit from the services before the end of the year.
The service which is available in the town of New Amsterdam has two Emergency Medical Technicians and two drivers attached to the unit.