�Emergency care key in national health system�
Mpho Mokwape | Friday May 16, 2014 17:28
Official opening a two-day Boitekanelo College Emergency Medicine Conference yesterday in Gaborone, Somolekae said this has created challenges when there are incidents involving large numbers of casualties.
As example, Somolekae revealed that out of the 6,157 casualties on Botswana’s roads last year, only 22 percent received pre-hospital emergency care through established ambulance services. The remainder did not receive any pre-hospital care.
“During the four months ended April 2014, 54 percent of the road crashes casualties received pre-hospital emergency care which is an improvement from the 22 percent recorded last year,” she said.
“This is the result of the establishment of the Public Emergency Medical Services Unit by government, “she said.
Somolekae explained that global health policy focuses on maternal and child health as well as the control of communicable diseases. This, she said, results in selected programmes being given support.
“This approach has created a health gap with emergency medical care not being integrated into the national health care systems,” she said.
Somolekae said emergency medical care, when integrated into the heath care system of any country, can improve the health of a population, responding to people’s health expectations and providing financial protection against the costs of ill health.
In addition, she stressed that emergency medical care can help countries meet the Millennium Development as it may address some of the challenges, especially the leading causes of death in the southern region.
“According to the World Health Organisation some of the leading causes of deaths in southern Africa are heart disease, respiratory infections, diarrhoeal diseases, tuberculosis, malaria and road traffic accidents,” she said.
“Some of these can be significantly mitigated if countries integrate emergency medical care into their health care systems,” she said.