Guyana Emergency Medical Service – an initiative that has been helping to save lives
Instructors from Vanderbilt Medical Center with a batch of EMTs who benefited from advanced training in 2019.
Kaieteur News – Since its inception in 2016, Guyana Fire and Emergency Medical Services (EMS) has responded to 15,630 medical emergencies through the 912 emergency helpline.
EMS Director, Dr. Zulfikar Bux.
Many lives were saved and had a positive impact on the pre-hospital emergency response locally, according to EMS National Director, Dr. Zulfikar Bux. While the comment showed its benefits in the vicinity of Region Four, Dr. noted. Bux, the architect behind this initiative, as many more patients are needed nationwide, expansion is needed to fill Guyana’s evolving pre-hospital emergency needs. “This service has proved its value worldwide and is helping to save so many lives and we are seeing similar effects in Guyana. We want to save more lives and answer all the calls for help but we can’t cover the whole country with a couple of ambulances. Sometimes I fantasize about the day when every Guyanese can get emergency access to paramedics anywhere in Guyana by calling the emergency hotline. I remain optimistic that we will get there and will do everything I can to achieve this goal, ”said Dr. Bux.
HOW IT’S BEING
Recalling a time when he was a young doctor working in the emergency room (ER), Dr. Bux wants accident victims to arrive too late because they did not have timely transportation or were improperly transported. “I always wanted to change this and get the sick to hospital in a timely manner while making sure they had proper care on the way,” said Dr. Bux, Emergency Medicine Specialist.
Although an ambulance service was out of reach at that time, Dr. Bux to put in place a plan to train police officers as first responders so that they can assist with the provision of care when they arrive at the scene. This initiative was beneficial to some but Dr. Bux has long recognized that more is needed to ensure that all Guyanese have proper access to a pre-hospital emergency service. His faculty at Vanderbilt Medical Center had similar ideas for Guyana and, in 2012; they decided to put the idea on paper and put together a model that was tailored to Guyana. Over the next few years, Dr. Bux is relentless in his quest to get a system in place. It finally underwent a breakthrough in 2014 when approval was given to start a pilot model through the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPHC) Corporation Accident and Emergency department. The model was wildly successful and provided Dr. with the necessary evidence. Bux to start a more sustainable national model. After many attempts, Dr. Bux found an ally in the Guyana Fire Service.
Mr Marlon Gentle, head of the Fire Service, understood the need for such a service and readily joined Dr. Bux when he proposed that the two entities should cooperate to form a national service. The EMS was birthed in November 2016.
ACHIEVEMENTS
Since then, Dr. revealed. Bux, trained over 100 Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs) as well as nine emergency medical responders, 32 emergency medical dispatchers, 618 police officers, 48 CANU officers, 21 Lands and Survey surveyors, 115 firefighters, 165 firefighters GWI staff and 24 MMA / ADA employees. The EMTs also attended over 15,000 medical emergencies including the delivery of 17 infants en route to hospital and four patients who stopped breathing were resuscitated by the EMTs on their way to hospital, according to Dr. Bux. “We did this with limited resources and in challenging circumstances. I can’t begin to thank my hardworking team for keeping it out and doing what we had to do to save lives in challenging conditions, ”added Dr. Bux appreciative.
The work done by Dr. Bux and his team have noticed the international scene. He was invited to the World EMS expo where he and colleagues from Vanderbilt Medical Center were asked to present the EMS model that Guyana created so that others can benefit from such innovations in medicine. He was also invited to EMS agencies in Vermont and Tennessee where similar presentations were made for EMS leaders in those provinces.
Currently Dr. Bux is collaborating with partners from Vanderbilt Medical Center to support the development of a similar initiative in Grenada that has reached out to him for support in this area.
CHALLENGES
“It’s never easy to form a new system, much less one in a resource-challenged setting,” Bux, as he added, “we need ambulances and infrastructure development as we expand the service. We need members of the public to stop harassing the EMTs and give them space to do their job. Many countries are celebrating their EMTs and we need to do the same and encourage these young professionals who venture into unknown and sometimes dangerous, life-saving environments. “
“There are times,” he added, “we cannot respond to calls because it is too far away or because we are occupied by other emergencies. We want to be able to make those calls, but if we try to cover the whole country with a couple of ambulances, we will not be as efficient or effective and the system will soon be discontinued. “
Dr. Bux is hopeful that there will be continued and even strengthened support this year for the EMS initiative. “We ask everyone on board to support us as we drive this process forward and help save as much as they can. The pandemic has slowed us down dramatically but we look forward to moving forward once the situation becomes more favorable, ”he added.
WHAT IS AHEAD PLACE
Going forward, Dr. Bux that there is currently a plan to cover the road population in stages. The hope, he says, is to get a roa
d coverage with ambulances, on a national scale, to respond to medical emergency calls. “Obviously there are places in the hinterland where air and water ambulances are more effective and that process requires a more collaborative effort, but we have the technical knowledge to support such a system,” said Dr. Bux.
The EMS Director is optimistic that “we can expand the ambulance coverage across Region Four and into Regions Three and Five over the next year or two. We can then address the other regions in similar times until there is national attention. ”