Hinterland regions to benefit from improved medevac services

As Government, through the Public Health Ministry, continues with efforts to improve healthcare services throughout the country, plans are afoot to expand emergency responses in the hinterland regions by improving the medevac services.
Director of the National Emergency Medical Services (NEMS), Dr Zulficar Bux recently told reporters that his unit was currently working with the Indigenous

Peoples’ Affairs Ministry to train first responders in the hinterland regions.
According to Dr Bux, researchers have found that the first thing that needs to be done in terms of emergency response in hinterland areas is to provide easy access to resources.
He noted that once this was addressed, they could move to improve emergency response services in those regions.
“Our plans are to help with air and water medevac so we will have to look at having water ambulances, and, of course, look at having fixed wing or rotary wing, that is, aeroplanes or medevac,” he stated.
Dr Bux went on to explain, however, that this would take some amount of resources and coordination. “But we are up to the challenge, and once we cover the land population, we will start to look at addressing it,” he posited.
Moreover, the NEMS Head added that his unit has been partnering with the United States-based Vanderbilt Medical Centre to devise a plan appropriate to the conditions of the hinterland regions.
“They’re looking at our hinterland layout and coming up with a plan on how we’re going to address the hinterland medevac. If you look at the population in the hinterland, it’s dispersed over a large area and some terrains are difficult to cover, so they’re working a plan for each terrain, finding out if a water ambulance would work better for a particular terrain or if they would need an aeroplane or if they would need a helicopter,” he explained.
Dr Bux noted that the Vanderbilt partners would be presenting an integrated plan following their research and would also provide support in its execution.
The Public Health Ministry had launched the NEMS back in November 2016, which saw more than 100 Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs) trained. The project also saw the merging of the ambulance services with the Guyana Fire Service for response to emergency cases.
The unit, headed by Dr Bux, currently only has three ambulances and according to its Director, steps are being taken to acquire another 22 to expand the services across the country.
“Our expansion plan this year is to get continued coverage within Georgetown and hit some of the areas within Berbice and West Demerara. So over time, we will be able to (provide wide) coverage with our medical response. We had done a lot on it and an estimated amount of 25 ambulances will cover about 80 per cent of the road population of Guyana (which runs from Skeldon to Parika to Linden),” he outlined.
In the meantime, Dr Bux said that the NEMS is currently conducting emergency response training with key stakeholder agencies, including the Guyana Water Incorporated (GWI); the Guyana Lands and Surveys Commission (GL&SC) and the Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit (CANU).