Some Lagos ambulance points, which were vandalised in the aftermath of the EndSARS protest of October 2020, have been refurbished by the SOMLPforR to improve quality of service delivery in emergency response and provide a work-friendly environment for emergency responders.
The five Lagos ambulance points located at Lagos Tollgate end of the Lagos-Ibadan Express way; Mile 12 in Kosofe LGA, Third Mainland Bridge; Anthony along Oshodi-Oke Expressway and Mobil along Lekki-Epe Expressway in Eti-Osa LGA, now wear a new look courtesy of the Saving One Million Lives Program for Result (SOMLPforR), a Federal Government initiative to strengthen health service delivery.
Speaking at the inauguration and handover of one of the newly refurbished points located at the Lagos Tollgate of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, the Permanent Secretary, Lagos State Ministry of Health, Dr. Olusegun Ogboye, said the old dilapidated and vandalised ambulance points were replaced with new prefabricated and transferable architecture consisting of an ambulance hanger and a workstation or office space for ambulance crew.
He said the construction of ambulance points in strategic areas of Lagos was first mooted in 2001 during the administration of then Governor Bola Tinubu, to reduce the response time of first responders at accident scenes, especially accident-prone areas.
Ogboye noted that ambulance infrastructure and crew at the ambulance points have been targets of hostilities in host communities and civil unrest, with the latest being the EndSARS protest of October 2020, which resulted in destruction of the ambulance points infrastructure.
He said: “Our current President, Bola Tinubu, started the Lagos State Ambulance Service (LASAMBUS) in the year 2001 and also built ambulance points in strategic locations so that it would reduce the time to get ambulances to respond to calls. It was a very good vision at that time and it really worked, but unfortunately, a lot of ugly incidents have been reported at some of these points against our ambulance crews”.
Ogboye disclosed that the other ideas geared towards protecting the ambulance infrastructure and crew are currently being worked on by the Governor Sanwo-Olu led administration in Lagos State, stressing that the State Government has plans to station ambulance points in all local government secretariats where ambulance can be deployed at any time of the day.
“But in the interim, ensuring that our ambulance crews have a place to stay on the roads, a place that is much more comfortable than what they had before, where they can deploy became of utmost priority, prompting moot the idea of overhauling the existing ambulance points.
“So one of the things we did was to approach SOMLPforR to ask for their support and to see what they can do for us, and to be honest, SOMLPforR coordinated by Dr. Mazeedat Erinosho has been extremely accommodating and very helpful with this project, and because of that now we have five of these newly refurbished ambulance points”, the Permanent Secretary explained.
While appreciating the Coordinator of SOMLPforR in Lagos State, and her team for acceding to the request of the Ministry of Health for a total overhaul of the ambulance points, Ogboye noted that because of the kind gesture of SOMLPforR, LASAMBUS crew can now boast of ambulance points where they can be stationed comfortably and dispatched quickly for emergency response.
Coordinator, SOMLPforR, Dr. Mazeedat Erinosho, explained that a SOMLPforR is a Federal Government initiative aimed at strengthening Maternal and Child Health Indices across the 36 State of the Federation using a set of Disbursement Linked Indicators (DLIs) among which is improving quality of service delivery.
She said: “The program supported five LASAMBUS points with prefabricated ambulance points replacing the dilapidated ones destroyed by civil unrest. These pre-fabricated ambulance points have a comfortable workstation providing a work friendly environment, thereby enhancing the productivity of the first responders to emergencies, which will, in addition, improve their response time to emergencies”.
Also speaking, the CEO Healthrange Equipment Solutions, Mr. Sulaiman Hammeed, the contractor who supervised the project, explained that prefabricated ambulance points have a lifespan of 20 years and are transferable in the event of expansion or relocation.
He noted that the ambulance points have office space with rechargeable fan, workstation table, filing cabinet and chairs that can house LASAMBUS crew apart from the ambulance hanger that serves as holding bay and shelter for the ambulance prior to deployment.
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