The Guyana Fire Service (GFS) in collaboration with the Ministries of Public Security and Public Health yesterday launched its National Emergency Medical Services (EMS) at Project Dawn, Liliendaal.
The service will be accessible from Monday, November 21, 2016 via the existing 912 Emergency calling system, GINA said.
National Medical Director of the EMS, Dr. Zulfikar Bux said that the establishment of the service is the turning point of EMS development in Guyana.
According to Dr. Bux, patients with medical emergencies who contact 912 will have access to treatment within 10 to 15 minutes.
Currently there is a total of 137 trained staff to operate the medical services which include 110 Emergency Medical Technicians (EMT) and 27 dispatchers, GINA said. The GFS has five ambulances available for the EMS pilot which will cover areas from Timehri, East Bank Demerara to Enmore, East Coast of Demerara.
Delivering the feature address at the launch of the service, GINA said that Minister of Public Security Khemraj Ramjattan noted that the setting up of the EMS is one that should have happened a long time ago.
An EMT the Minister said, “is going to be competent, to know how to deal with the circumstances of a fire, the injured person being there, how he can better handle or she can better handle those circumstances, and that is how we are going to evolve from the developing into the developed.”
Minister of Public Health, Dr. George Norton, said that the establishment of the EMS is an important step for Guyana. He added that the goal is to have national coverage.
