By Abbas Aminu Bamalli
In an effort towards improving emergency management in the country, the Federal Ministry of Health, in collaboration with National Board for Technical Education (NBTE), has launched a curriculum for National Diploma in Paramedics Technology.
During the ceremony on Tuesday in Abuja, the Minister of Health, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu said, trauma is a major public health problem in Sub-Saharan African where road traffic injury is among the leading causes of deaths and disabilities, saying, pre-hospital care is of great importance in medical and surgical emergencies.
According to him, timely intervention saves lives and improves patients’ outcome, therefore the development of the curriculum is aimed at addressing these challenges.
Prof. Chukwu further said a lot of preventable deaths in the country are caused by delayed access to emergency care, adding that a significant number of lives are lost daily in road traffic injuries, plane crash, ethno-religious crises, political and electoral violence, bomb blasts and insurgency.
He, therefore, said these deaths resulting from inadequate emergency medical service response and organised pre-hospital trauma system in the country require urgent attention.
According to him, “Prior to this time, the few paramedics in Nigeria have not been properly trained, and so are not certified”, saying the paramedics, on completion of their training, have no prospects in the civil service as they do not carry any recognised certificate and as such do not have entry cadre on the civil service system.
