Stakeholders discuss role of technology in trauma care, emergency response in Nigeria

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Trauma care and emergency response stakeholders: Director of LASAMBUS, Dr. Kola Korolo, FRSC Sector Commander in Lagos State, Olusegun Ogungbemide who was represented by Mrs. Fekoya, Commissioner for Health Lagos State, Prof. Akin Abayomi who was represented by Dr. Adeolu Arogundade and moderator of the session, senior Executive officer of Trauma Care International Foundation, Dr Olajumoke Akisanya, at BON Hotel Ikeja Residence, Lagos.

Trauma care and emergency response stakeholders: Director of LASAMBUS, Dr. Kola Korolo, FRSC Sector Commander in Lagos State, Olusegun Ogungbemide who was represented by Mrs. Fekoya, Commissioner for Health Lagos State, Prof. Akin Abayomi who was represented by Dr. Adeolu Arogundade and moderator of the session, senior Executive officer of Trauma Care International Foundation, Dr Olajumoke Akisanya, at BON Hotel Ikeja Residence, Lagos.
Trauma care and emergency response stakeholders: Director of LASAMBUS, Dr. Kola Korolo, FRSC Sector Commander in Lagos State, Olusegun Ogungbemide who was represented by Mrs. Fekoya, Commissioner for Health Lagos State, Prof. Akin Abayomi who was represented by Dr. Adeolu Arogundade and moderator of the session, senior Executive officer of Trauma Care International Foundation, Dr Olajumoke Akisanya, at BON Hotel Ikeja Residence, Lagos.

By Taiwo Okanlawon

Some major key stakeholders in trauma care and emergency response, in Nigeria, have highlighted the roles of technology and E-help platforms at the launching of the Trauma Care Emergency Response Application Suit (TCERA) by Truma Care International Foundation (TCIF).

TCERA which comprises the Responder and the User applications can be used to connect victims of emergencies. It was launched at BON Hotel Ikeja Residence, Lagos in presence of veterans and specialists in the health sector, Lagos State Government officials, and Health Care Service Providers.

TCIF which is also a member agency of the Chris Oyakhilome Foundation International has through the years consistently focused on improving trauma management and emergency response services in Nigeria.

The stakeholders including the Commissioner for Health Lagos State, Prof. Akin Abayomi who was represented by Dr. Adeolu Arogundade; the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Health, Lagos State, Dr. Olusegun Ogboye; Director of LASAMBUS, Dr. Kola Korolo, FRSC Sector Commander in Lagos State, Olusegun Ogungbemide who was represented by Mrs. Fekoya, all commended the initiative by TCIF.

Speaking on the role of technology and e-help platforms in emergency services in Nigeria during the interactive session, representative of the Commissioner for Health, Dr. Adeolu Arogundade, said technology has a lot of hold on free hospital care all over the world, not just in Nigeria.

He also pointed out the challenges and the importance of collaboration between public and private actors, emphasising the need to get to the nearest care provider or where victims can get help within the minimal time of the accident.

“Tech brings a lot of possibilities in saving lives, especially in emergencies. There are several apps being created these days that help you find the nearest clinical service provider, check for blood service for emergencies, and many others.

“When I became a medical director, I created on Google map, the location of the hospital and other parameters. From that time, I was able to check the number of people who googled emergency in Lagos state.

“If you google emergency on your phones, you will be directed to our hospital. This helps to direct our focus on how to reach people better.

“There are tons of information on the internet on locations to emergency places. This is what tech does,” he added.

Dr. Arogundade also revealed that the state government set up calls, and ambulance service for emergency care. He expressed that the call and ambulance service will step up operations with the TCERA APP.

According to him, “TCERA APP will provide the technology for easy communication. There are 28 government facilities and over 2,000 registered facilities.

“The APP will make it faster to identify locations; identify the FRSC, whose second office is on the road; identify the Police, LASTMA, NURTW, and others; also identify centres for interventions.”

He reiterated that Lagos State government has 27 general hospitals, observing that, however, the population of Lagos continues to grow. “Definitely, we need cooperation and the private sector to save our people,” Arogundade declared.

The representative of the FRSC Sector Commander in Lagos State, Mrs. Fekoya, said that the FRSC has mandate to prevent crash on the roads.

She said that the Corps need to educate and enlighten people on safety measures on the highways. She pointed out that 95% of auto-crash on highways are caused by human errors.

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She stated that the FRSC rely on technology to get information on occurrences on highways.

Mrs. Fekoya advocated that people should comply with accident prevention measures and save resources devoted to medicals, so that such resources can be utilised in other areas of development.

In her words, “the FRSC, on our part, has a mandate of eradicating road crash and creating a safe motoring environment. That’s from the preventive angle where we also focus on a lot of public enlightenment; educating people about the Do’s and Don’ts when using the road.

“Along the way, when these things happen -because you cannot rule them out -, when our attention has been called upon to crashes, we rely on tech to do this. We have the First Information Report, we have the Call Centre, a platform where we connect with all the commands in Nigeria.we have 12 commands and 5 outputs in Lagos.

“Wherever the crash occurs, a call centre calls the command nearest to the place of the crash, and we proceed there. We have connectivity with hospitals and we call tell them the situation on the ground.

“We also have the Close Users Group where we connect with ourselves. If there is any information, we call the command who takes up the effect. We have a syergy with other groups as well. We relate with LASTMA, we relate with hospitals.

“The GPS is used to monitor vehicles of commands from the headquarters. Of course, they are expected to get to the rescue scenes in ten minutes. Once a call goes through, the command is monitored from HQ to see if it complies with directives.

The LASAMBUS Director affirmed that technology is in the front burner of service delivery, noting that LASAMBUS is working on some innovations.

Dr. Korolo stated: “communication is key in interventionist care services, there is need for governmental and non-governmental synergy. “We have gone past where we started, we reach out to the grassroots population. Lagos will adopt the TCERA APP at call centres.”

He disclosed that LASAMBUS has a partnership with an organisation in Texas, the US, and another in Canada.

“Some of our goals have been to achieve SDGs.

“People have suffered from injuries, even ones that should not have a lasting effect. This initiative is to improve emergency response in Lagos state. The core goal of this administration is to improve further and increase services to the grassroots.

“If we can get to the grassroots, we can give proper care. Technology is at the forefront of our activities, and we believe that in due course, we will achieve better results,” he said.

The Trauma Care International Foundation (TCIF) is a non-governmental organisation and a member agency of the Chris Oyakhilome Foundation International. TCIF has through the years consistently focused on improving trauma management and emergency response services in Nigeria.

The senior Executive officer of Trauma Care International Foundation, Dr Olajumoke Akisanya, identified some of TCIF’s strategic partners for the project to include the Lagos State Ambulance Service, the Federal Road Safety Commission, the Nigerian Boy Scouts Organization, Lagos Neighbourhood Safety Corps, and others.

The Chairperson of the Trauma Care International Foundation; Dr. Deola Phillips, identified the launch of the apps as another significant contribution to nation-building. She thanked the Chris Oyakhilome Foundation International (COFI) for their dependable support. She expressed the hope that the deployment and use of these applications within the Lagos Metropolis by its residents will not only help to reduce the morbidity and mortality rates associated with injuries but will complement and lend support to the impact of the existing emergency response framework within Lagos State and the nation. The innovation was acknowledged to be changing the game of trauma care services, eliminating the constraints imposed by distances and traffic during emergency interventions.

www.tcerapp.org was provided for further information.

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