The General Manager of the Osun State Ambulance Services, Dr Olusegun Babatunde, on Tuesday said 50,280 victims had been saved from accidents by the agency between 2013, when the scheme started, and so far this year.
Babatunde, in a chat with reporters in Osogbo, revealed that with 200 medics, 200 drivers and 49 ambulances, the scheme effectively covered all the 30 local government areas and strategic points on highways across the state.
He said since the scheme was introduced, the number of death from road crashes in the state had reduced drastically, adding that the agency was also working with private health care service providers to ensure that accident victims had access to emergency medical attention.
Babatunde further stressed that “We have spoken with private hospitals across the state to attend to all emergency victims referred by our agency, and in cases where such hospitals do not have the facilities to cater for the victims, they must ensure that the victims are stabilised before transferring them to other hospitals with adequate facilities.
“Also, part of our agreement with the hospitals is that our patients must not be exploited irrespective of their health situation. They must be billed in line with the charges of the state hospitals or equivalent of the National Health Insurance Scheme charges.
“In some cases, we made them realise that their services would have to be free, especially in the case of patients, who don’t have families to take care of their bills after treatment, and most of our partners agreed to this.”
Besides the emergency services that the agency provides, Babatunde said the ambulance scheme was also providing referral services.