Ismaeel Uthman
A total of 22, 560 accident victims were rescued by Osun Emergency Medical and Ambulance System (OSEMSAS), popularly known as O’Ambulance between 2013 and 2023.
Also, no fewer than 1,203 pregnant women were delivered of babies by the service within its 10 years of operation.
The General Manager of the agency, Dr. Segun Babatunde disclosed this in an exclusive interview with OSUN DEFENDER.
According to Babatunde, the service facilitated referral of 14,000 of the 22,560 rescued accident victims within the years under review.
“The referral services cover both private and public hospitals. It could be an accident victim that needs to be moved from one hospital to another, depending on the medical attention /investigations needed,” Babatunde noted.
O’Ambulance clocked 10 years on February 4, 2023. The agency was established as Osun Ambulance Services Agency on February 4, 2013 by Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola whilst he was the governor of the State of Osun, and renamed in 2021.
The scheme is a pivot of one of the six-point Integral Action Plan of Aregbesola in promoting healthy living among the people of the state.
Speaking on the rechristening of the scheme from Osun Ambulance Service to Osun Emergency Medical Services and Ambulance System (OSEMSAS), Babatunde said the idea is to key into the National Emergency Medical Services And Ambulance System (NEMSAS) model.
He said O’Ambulance was rated the best in the country by a team of the Federal Ministry of Health which came this year to evaluate the service.
The General Manager is hopeful that Osun will be part of the piloting states for NEMSAS.
He said: “We hope to be part of the piloting states of NEMSAS because the team from the Federal Ministry of Health rated us the best in the country.
“The focused areas of our services are prompt provision of emergency medical services to the victims of road accidents and evacuating them to the nearest hospital, provision of quality referral services for patients from one hospital to another, depending on the specialist services required and provision of emergency medical services in medical emergency situations anywhere anytime within the state.
“All services are free and our response time is between five to 10 minutes. Our service is 24/7 round the clock.”
As of the time of filing this report, the service has 40 Ambulances spread across the state.
On the quality of service delivery, Babatunde said: “Our paramedics are highly trained. We have regular quarterly update trainings. We have all facilities for basic life-saving and advance life-saving procedures. All our Ambulances are well equipped.”
