Strengthening prehospital care to ensure quality health care

Pre-hospital care provides timely care in emergent and urgent health conditions and in so doing it addresses quality, access, and equity. (1) The large burden of acute disease in Africa can be substantially addressed by effective, integrated emergency care systems, of which non-hospital emergency care plays a critical role. (2) In the past decade, FMOH has exerted significant efforts in the development and expansion of ambulance services. Before 2010, ambulance service was being provided only by the Ethiopian Red Cross Society (ERCS). (3) Since 2010, the FMOH allocated fund that was enhanced by additional community mobilization efforts, and as of 2020, it purchased several thousands of ambulances. Besides, there are Private ambulance systems with noticeable development as well as expansion of ERCS ambulances underway. (4) Despite these visible developments, there are formidable challenges in this domain of practice. Ambulances are mainly giving maternal referral transport services while they hardly respond to other emergency problems. The dispatch and call system is not strong in many areas. As the call system doesn’t work and response time is significantly delayed it created public distrust. Consequently, most emergency patients are transported to health facilities with other transport systems.