*Provides oxygens, free ambulance emergency services
By Amechi Innocent
The Ebonyi State Ministry of Health in a bid to tackle maternal mortality and under five deaths has commenced free state Emergency Medical Services and ambulances system.
The ministry has distributed 15 ambulances, 186 oxygen cylinders to general hospitals, Primary Health Centres in the state.
The Commissioner for Health, Dr. Moses Ekuma while flagging-off the exercise described it as another milestone in the state health sector, adding that the essence of procuring those equipment is to help revive patients at the verge of death.
Ekuma noted that the ministry has tackled the challanges of manpower, basic medical equipment, establishment of an agency to provide drugs for their general hospitals and Primary Health Centres including the issue of health insurance where many has been enrolled by the state government.
He said emergency goes with oxygen, stressing that thing that lead to death is majorly respiratory failure, saying that they have three oxygen producing plants one in each zone which makes it easy for the cylinders to be filled.
The Commissioner said with the emergency medical service fully activated and flagged-off in the state, maternal mortality rate and all the preventable death in the state will not only be reduced to the bearest minimum but fully eliminated and urged the doctors to use the opportunity to help the patients.
The Cordinator, Ebonyi state Emergency Medical Service and Amblance system, Dr Mrs Chinwendu Precious Eugene- Aba explained that the 16 ambulances were for the general hospitals and general emergency team while 171 oxygen cylinders were for the PHCs and another 15 for the general hospitals.
Dr. Eugene-Aba said that the official flag off of the State emergency medical service and ambulance system will curtail maternal mortality and under five mortality, cover road traffic accident, snake bite among others.
She disclosed that a patients has a number to call in an emergency situation and ambulance will be mobilized to rush and pick the patient to a facility depending on the seveerity of the problem.
The Cordinator disclosed that the patients will be given free treatment within 48 hours after which he would be expected to pay after he has been resuscitated.
In her remark, the representative of the Officers in charge of the Primary Health Centres, Mrs Ngozi Azubuike said the system will address the issue of maternal mortality and promised that they will utilize the equipment and will not let the state down.
The exercise featured the distribution of the oxygen cylinders and ambulances to the Primary Health Centres and general hospitals respectively.
