The Tribune

By EARYEL BOWLEG

Tribune Staff Reporter

ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

HEALTH and Wellness Minister Dr Michael Darville said a new headquarters for the National Emergency Medical Services should help to improve emergency response times in certain areas of New Providence.

He spoke on the sidelines of a commissioning ceremony for the new NEMS headquarters on University Boulevard.

“As far as we are concerned, we believe that our response times (are) pretty much on standard of what’s going on in the region. Our job with the relocation (of) facilities is to become more centralised so that we can improve our response time, mainly in the southern, the east, and the west region,” he told reporters.

“As you realise, coming from the Princess Margaret Hospital, there’s a lot of congestion, and that congestion sometimes delays us from arriving at the appropriate time, even though there’s protocols on the road in order for us to get there.

“By strategically placing this emergency medical facility in the central location, we believe that we will be able to improve those times on arrival at scenes of accidents or emergencies at personal residences or any commercial space.”

NEMS director Dr Avery Hanna said ideally emergency response time would be within four minutes but there are so many factors involved.

Public Hospitals Authority managing director Dr Aubynette Rolle noted the efforts to increase the fleet of EMS vehicles.

“What we are doing, though, to minimise our response, is to increase our fleets. Of course, you know that the ambulances run 24 hours, and therefore, the ability to maintain them. So we are now moving to get additional ambulances.”

She added: “As a matter of fact, just yesterday, I made a deposit on an ambulance. Because of the supply chain issues now, it’s taking anywhere from 18 months to two years just to get an ambulance and so we just made a deposit yesterday to be able to bring some in from Florida.

“And then also we’re doing additional training. So we are increasing the fleet to do the response, as well as increasing our numbers and training of that human capital.”

Dr Hanna said 13 people from various Family Islands are being trained as emergency medical technicians.

“In order to really have one ambulance manned and respond on a 24-hour basis, we need nine EMTs. So for each of those islands, we would need up to nine persons really to help to run that single ambulance for a 24-hour period.”

“Of course, some islands, depending on how big they are, may need to have a service in the north or service in the south - that type of thing. So there is definitely a whole lot of room for growth in EMS. We would like to at least have that one ambulance initially, but on some islands, we might need two or three. So you know, if we multiply that by three ambulances, we’ll need 27 EMTs on that island.”

Dr Darville said he is committed to improving EMS services on the Family Islands.

“I want to speak to our Family Island residents. Very soon, gone will be the day when you have to throw your individual on the back of a truck to carry them to the airport and to have the necessary airlift to New Providence.

“We in this administration assure you that we will put these services in place to improve the mortality and the morbidity of individuals who suffer from serious medical illnesses who need to be transported from one place to the next on the Family Island and from there via air ambulance to New Providence.”