Launch of Emergency Operation Center for Nairobi
Nairobi. In October, Malteser International, together with its national partner Nairobi Metropolitan Service (NMS), opened a new Emergency Operation Center (EOC) for the public ambulance service. In the future, the office will be used for the organization of ambulance missions and the distribution of patients to hospitals.
"We are already seeing a big improvement in the patient care in Nairobi," says Kipngetich Rono, Clinical Officer and Team Leader of the Nairobi Operation Center. The new center can be reached via a toll-free emergency number. Using software and GPS tracking of ambulances, staff at the office can efficiently manage and target ambulances. Malteser International has been supporting the expansion of the ambulance services in Kenya since the beginning of 2020.
As part of the project, and among other things, they have already trained 610 emergency workers and have equipped 20 ambulances in accordance with international standards, where six of them were completely funded by Malteser International. In addition, the country team supported the local partner organization NMS in the development of guidelines for emergency services in Nairobi, as well as 10 counties in the preparation of decentralized emergency plans for early clinical intervention and emergency care.
"We have been working with NMS and the Kenyan Ministry of Health for a long time now. That's why we chose Nairobi as the starting point for our work. Our goals for the coming years is to expand the rescue system step by step to other regions," says Martin Schömburg, head of the country office in Kenya. The project is supported by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).
During the opening ceremony, Malteser International and the Sovereign Order of Malta handed over 250,000 surgical masks to the partner organization NMS in order to support its work in the fight against COVID-19. The masks are going to be distributed in 27 health facilities.
Malteser International has been active in the health sector in Kenya since 2001. The special focus of our aid lies in the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS among disadvantaged groups in the slums of Nairobi or the Maasai.
(October 2021)
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