Flying Doctors Nigeria blazing the trail in emergency medical services

In the late 1960s, helicopter emergency medical services (HEMS) were established because of the increasing number of severely injured in road traffic accidents. It was initially thought to bring the doctor to the patient quickly.

Today, the rescue helicopter covers the entire field of emergency medicine. The combination of the transfer by HEMS and treatment in a level I trauma center has a significantly positive effect on the survival rate of the patient, especially in patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI).

Meanwhile, the debate over outcome differences between patients transported to hospital by air and those transported by ground ambulance has continued for more than two decades, but there is general consensus that severely injured patients transported by air have a better chance of survival. The controversy is whether helicopter transport is necessary for particular cohorts of patients.

Although cost-benefit analyses are warranted, “air ambulance transport for injured patients is vitally important given increasing patient volumes, the limited number of trauma centres and inadequate subspecialty coverage in non-trauma hospitals.

This has been the driving force for Flying Doctor Nigeria [FDN] Medical Emergency Services provider that specializes in air ambulance, medevac, remote site medical solutions, and infrastructural development and training. 

They understand real-time needs and their responses that ensure highest quality medical solutions.

Founder of Flying Doctors Nigeria, Dr. Ola Orekunrin,  dedicated to bringing trauma care to the most remote parts of Western Africa and her company, an air ambulance service based in Lagos said Air ambulances allow a higher volume of patients to be treated in a fewer number of specialist hospitals which is far better for patients as evidence from medical journals from all over the world shows that ‘in order to provide complex healthcare safely, professional teams need to see sufficient volumes of patients with a particular condition.

She stated that more lives can be saved if advanced services are centralised in more specialist hospitals.

Hospitals that receive higher numbers of patients, she noted,  can perform procedures more efficiently and reduce cost, just like printers do, adding that, ‘It doesn’t matter whether you are printing 100 copies or 1000 copies, the cost it almost the same’.

‘The savings that hospitals make by seeing lager numbers of patients for the same procedure can then be passed onto patients’, she added.

 She stated that when a patient experiences a medical emergency, every second counts, stressing that this is especially important in trauma cases such as car accidents and in medical emergencies like strokes and heart attacks.

Her words, ‘If a patient can get to an advanced, not local, hospital within one hour (called the Golden hour in medicine), the chances of survival are exponentially increased’.

  Air ambulances she noted solve problems especially in many countries, particularly developing countries like Nigeria which have poor road infrastructure.

 Many roads are seasonal, some very difficultto drive on, others blocked by traffic jams. These issues make it impossible for patients to reach hospital on time.

Wole Shadare