Guyana rolls out National Emergency Medical Services

― project to merge fire, ambulance services

The Public Health Ministry, in collaboration with the Public Security Ministry, has rolled out Phase One of its National Emergency Medical Services (EMS), which will see the merging of ambulance and the fire services.

For this project, more than 100 Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs) have been trained and will be working closely with the Guyana Fire Service to provide aid to citizens. Phase One of the National EMS project will see ambulances based at the Central Fire Station at Stabroek, Alberttown, Diamond and Mon Repos Fire Stations along with EMTs available on a 24-hour basis.
Speaking at the launching ceremony on Thursday, EMS Medical Director, Dr Zulfikar Bux, recalled what a strenuous task it was to bring this project to its current stage. Dr Bux, an emergency response specialist himself, has been working tirelessly over the years to make an emergency medical service in Guyana a reality, presenting robust proposals to two different Administrations before one was finally accepted and approved by the current Cabinet.

He explained that he had recognised the need for emergency medical services in Guyana and so a few years ago, he partnered with the Fire Service to train specialists in this area under a pilot programme and from 2014 to date, those EMTs have responded to over 500 calls and even made three deliveries en route to the hospitals.
“The EMS system has been proven in all areas of medicine that it is helping to save people and bringing them faster to the hospital so that we can take care of them,” he stated.
Dr Bux went on to say that while the project would be initially rolled out in Georgetown and its outskirts along the East Bank and East Coast of Demerara, it would be countrywide within the next five years.
“Unfortunately, we only have three ambulances and so we are doing a phased implementation and over the next five years, we expect to cover the entire system. But we are asking the members of the public to cooperate with us and understand that we will not be able meet the needs of the system. It’s in a phase, where we are trying to ensure that we get everything right so when we do become a full national system, we won’t have to go back to the planning table and say this is where we went wrong,” the EMS Medical Director explained.
Meanwhile, Chief Fire Officer Marlon Gentle expressed his satisfaction that the ambulance service has returned to the realm of the Guyana Fire Service. He pointed out that the Fire Service already has the platform to launch emergency services, which is handling and dispatching. To this end, he noted that it was efficient to amalgamate the fire and ambulance services into one platform, where persons can call one number with any kind of emergency and have assistance in the form of both medical and firefighting services.
Gentle added that the Fire Service was currently having its systems upgraded with modern facilities and software to assist in critical dispatch as well as to record calls.
Furthermore, the Fire Chief urged the EMTs to ensure that they adopt utmost professionalism in executing their duties as they would be interacting directly with the public.
“If we are to roll out a service with the expectations of the public, we need to do it only one way – the right way and we need to do it professionally and therefore quality assurance, quality control and all the tenets of running this service have to be observed,” he stated.
Public Health Minister, Dr George Norton and Public Security Minister Khemraj Ramjattan both acknowledged the importance of emergency medical services and pledged to support the project going forward as it expands throughout the country. In fact, Dr Norton disclosed that two more ambulances are being procured for the project, while Minister Ramjattan assured that the necessary equipment would be provided to the Fire Service for the National EMS to be a success.