MBABANE – MVA is targeting to donate at least 6 ambulances to the Ministry of health before December 2021.
Positively, the Sincephetelo Motor Vehicle Fund has donated an ambulance to the EPR department today. This ambulance is a second one, and four others are on their way. What has become a seamless Sincephetelo strategy is that the fund will carry all the maintenance cost of the donated ambulances.
Eswatini Positive News has it in its authority that today’s ambulance cost E2.4 million. In fact, the procurement cost is E1.2 million, with the customisation done in South Africa, cost E2.4 million.
David Mfanimpela Myeni, MVA Chief Executive Officer, said the Fund signed an MoU with the Ministry of Health’s – EPR Unit early this year to practicalize the its pro-active Seamless Sincephetelo Strategy.
He said the partnership has seen the relocation of the Road Traffic Accident Call Centre to the Fund and the donation of an initial ambulance unit to the EPR Unit.
He stated that during the launch of the launch of the Road Traffic Accident Call Centre in March 2020, it was indicated that as part of the Fund’s new strategy, MVA was now involved from the time an accident occurred through patient evacuation from accident scenes right through the post-crash value chain (treatment, rehabilitation and compensation where necessary).
He said in the past, the Fund used to wait for accident victims to come to the Fund to register claims, on average six months after an accident.
“Now we do not wait for them but respond to accidents as they occur, from accident reporting to patient evacuation. Today’s event is therefore meant for the Fund to handover a 2nd ambulance unit to EPR, being a larger Mercedes Sprinter Vehicle that has the capacity to carry more than one patient at a time,” he said.
“The overall objective is to ensure that by December 2021, the Fund has handed over at least 6 ambulances to the EPR Unit which will be used solely for road crashes. As already been highlighted, part of the SMVAF Seamless Sincephetelo Strategy 20/24 embraces the proactive evacuation and treatment of road crash victims from accident scenes to admission in hospitals,” he said.
He said capacitating the EPR Unit will assist in the mission of effective accident response, dispatch and treatment within the golden hour as espoused by the EPR core values
“The public is also reminded that effective March 2021, all ambulances that respond to road crashes, are now dispatched through the Call Centre located within the Fund. This Call Centre serves as one stop-shop in reporting of road accidents, a critical trigger for our case management department to start following up on hospital admissions,” he said.
Myeni stated that the collaboration with EPR also ensures the immediate access to accident data from the onset, enabling the Fund to swiftly activate the case management mechanisms. He said the post-crash care is a critical component of the actions to undertake as evidence has shown that most road crash traffic deaths occur in pre-hospital phase, therefore the fund wants to circumvent such deaths through rapid responsiveness
“As signatories to the UN Decade of Action 2020/30, the Fund has committed to helping government reduce the number of deaths and serious injuries due to road crashes by 50 per cent by 2030. To give further effect to the strategy of the drastic reduction of preventable road crashes, the Fund has also established from May 2021, an Internal Accident Prevention and Public Education Department headed by Dumisa Dlamini whose sole objective is to reduce road accidents,” he said.
He said the department has already met various national road safety stakeholders to craft out intervention strategies that will assist in this regard and these will start being visible to all our stakeholders as the year progresses.
