Emergency medical technicians from the Rwandan Red Cross are working day and night to help the sick in Gisagara district with an ambulance at their disposal.
The Rwandan Red Cross (RRC) has deployed 8 medical technicians and an ambulance to Kibirizi hospital in Gisagara district since 2019 for emergency services. “They drive the ambulance, evacuate patients and take care of them before handing them over to the hospital’s emergency department,” says Jean Claude Nzabahimana, Station supervisor at the Kibirizi hospital in the Southern Province.
“We work day and night in teams of two technicians. Two during the day and two at night,” he says. “We all have driving licenses and the ability to take care of patients,” says Nzabahimana.
This emergency medical service provided by the RRC is very useful. “It has come to support and improve the one provided by the hospital,” said the director in charge of health in Gisagara district, Jean Bosco Uwingabire. “The ambulance service serves nine health centers. Some of them are located far from the Burundian border. Some patients were arriving at the hospital in very bad conditions,” explains Director Uwingabire.
According to the hospital’s director general, Dr Jean de Dieu Twizeyimana, they have three ambulances. The service of evacuating patients from the health centers is carried out in turn. “The main job is to transport and assist the sick,” says Dr Twizeyimana. “Emergency cases are taken care of by the ambulance service without the need for the presence of a nurse,” reveals Dr Twizeyimana.
Similar services provided by the Rwandan Red Cross (RRC) are also available at Nyamata hospital in the Eastern Province, in the refugee camps of Mahama and Nyabiheke and at the headquarters of this auxiliary state organization in Kigali.
The RRC intends to extend this emergency medical service to the city of Kigali and other districts, although this requires significant resources to achieve.
This ambulance service is operational thanks to the existing partnership between the Rwandan Ministry of Health and the Rwandan Red Cross (RRC).
Gérard Rugambwa
