The best way to reduce death and disability from life-threatening conditions is to prevent them. However, when prevention fails, it is often possible to minimize the consequences of serious acute conditions, including long-term morbidity or mortality, by promptly providing effective prehospital care.
Pre-hospital Care plays a massive role in addressing urgent care to those that are not in a health care set up for different reasons. It also addresses those who require urgent lifesaving care before reaching a health care setup. It mainly touches upon one of the aims of emergency care i.e. Preservation of Life.
Ideally, for effective and efficient public emergency response, there must be a designated communication center with equipped ambulance service. Emergency Medical Service, Fire, and Police use the communication line to address all forms of emergencies & disasters: all these activities are also directly or indirectly linked to an ambulance service that is easily accessible.
The Pre-Hospital Pilot Project aims to provide effective public emergency response catering to the needs of the community, in Addis Ababa and nationally, once the service is upscaled. It’s focus areas are the main pillars of Pre-hospital service: Establishing Call & Dispatch Center, Construction of designated Ambulance Stations distributed within the city, Capacity Building for Professionals (Health Care Workers, Ambulance Drivers, Call Center Professionals & Supportive Staff), Procurement of new ambulances accompanied by a resource mobilization of existing ambulance & equipping of the ambulances.