KAMPALA – Kampala Capital City Authority-KCCA has added seven more ambulances to its fleet, bringing the number to 12 – and dispatching the new additions to the respective five city divisions – bought at a cost of Ugx1.6b – targeting to improve emergency medical services.
Dr Daniel Okello -the Director of Public Health at KCCA revealed at City Hall on Monday that the procured vehicles include six type B meant for basic life support; while a C is designed for advanced life support.
Dr Okello explained that each Ambulance cost Ugx230m – drawn from the KCCA Covid -19 funds. Dr Sarah Zalwango – the acting Deputy Director of Public Health at KCCA explained that Type C Ambulance can be used for patients who need intensive Care because it had been equipped with relevant facilities. The ambulance comprises a portable electric suction pump, Pneumatic Splints, an Automated External Defibrillator, a Transport ventilator, Pulse Oximeter, and an Oxygen cylinder among others.
The Emergency Services Policy that was passed by the cabinet will only allow ambulances starting with Type B. Politicians especially Members of Parliaments have been donating ambulances as one of the ways of building confidence amongst their voters. Most of the ambulances fall in Type A, which are only considered as transport vehicles.
Type B ambulances are fitted with equipment to offer oxygen therapy, nebulization, monitoring of vital parameters, and automatic external defibrillation for diagnosing life-threatening heartbeats. While flagging off the vehicles, the Kampala City Lord Mayor, Erias Lukwago said that there was a need for a functional Ambulance system with high-tech facilities like the vans he had launched.
Lukwago revealed that Kampala needs over 70 Ambulances for a robust system to handle the emerging challenges but only 12 were available.
He explained that council had approved Ugx150m for each ambulance -which means that each division should have received two vehicles – a dream yet to be fulfilled. Lukwago revealed that they have since tasked the technical team to give them a detailed report on the purchase of the Ambulances.
He also revealed that they hoped to have a mobile clinic to be able to handle emergency cases in the communities.
“I appreciate the fact that we may not restrict our operations only to the boundaries of Kampala because health needs don’t know boundaries – so we have to stretch up to Wakiso and other parts of the country but we may not go very far because our finances are constrained,” noted Lukwago.
