Corporate 24 Health Care, in collaboration with other health stakeholders, has launched the Free Emergency Preparedness Campaign, which will provide free emergency treatment to individuals facing any emergency who report to their hospital throughout February.
This campaign, which will run concurrently with Free First Aid Training and Health Education on Emergencies for the public, is in response to the massive influx of emergencies seen across the country, where patients arrive at hospitals in worse shape due to how they handled from the time the emergency developed to the time they arrived for treatment.
Corporate 24 Health Care also said that most emergency instances occur when individuals are not financially, logistically, or mentally prepared, which is why the organisation wants to train people in first aid, emergency preparedness, procedures, and practices that could save lives and reduce health when they become first responders.
One of the doctors at Corporate 24 Health Care, Dr Kevin Kusano, said doctors had observed that some of the challenges patients faced when brought to the hospital was that their first responders may not have handled them well by the time they arrived there.,
“A minor spine injury would become a complicated one or any other emergency becomes a severe limb or life threatening. Hence we need to educate our public about the life-saving services available,” he said at a media briefing on Thursday in Bulawayo.
He also noted that for patients to access the free emergency treatment they had to be brought in by ambulances.
“Ambulance technicians are well trained in what emergencies are, they know how to screen which emergencies need to be brought to the hospital fast and type of hospital.”
Coming via an ambulance is part of the terms and conditions of the free emergency treatment campaign.
Other terms are that it must be a ‘real emergency and not a cold case’ and patients must be brought to Corporate 24 hospitals in Bulawayo or Harare.
Dr Kusano said the aim of this campaign was for people to access quality care when they cannot afford it.
“We are going to treat every emergency that comes through the ambulance. We will attend people for free and each day there will be a specific team that will be waiting for emergencies. The ambulance technicians have all been given the contact numbers of the hospital and each team that will be here each and everyday,” he said.
“We will be stabilising patients for free. If a baby patient comes in with severe dehydration, we are going to give the baby fluids and anything else that is needed. We will do the tests that are necessary and after the baby is stable and needs to be followed up by their own specialist, paediatrician or family doctor we hand them over and that is where we end, knowing the patient is stable.”
Dr Kusano said if patients needed admission, their free emergency services from that point onwards stops and services thereafter will be provided on the usual payment terms.
“If patients are not admitted here, we will then transfer those patients to any hospital they can choose and afford. But we are here to stabilise core cases,” he said.
Corporate 24 General Manager Thompson Muchineuta emphasised the importance of knowing where to go for help when an emergency occurs.
“We believe we are fully equipped to deal with any kind of emergency. We have over 100 employees and 95 percent are clinical practitioners who are well trained in handling emergencies,” he said.
“It is very important to raise awareness on when and how low to access services we are offering. This campaign is also an appreciation for the good working relations we have with the Bulawayo community who have been supporting us since we established here seven years ago. We felt we have to give something back.”
The free emergency treatment programme is targeted at Bulawayo and Harare where Corporate 24 has its two Grade A hospital branches.
Corporate 24 is working in collaboration with other health stakeholders which include Ambulance Service Providers like ACE, MARS, EMRASS, BCC, NETSTAR, St John, ASTRID among others.
Corporate 24 Marketing Manager Vusimuzi Moyo stated that the health care institution will be carrying out initiatives such as the March TB Campaign, the April World Health Day Campaign, May: Asthma Day and World Hygiene Day Campaign, June: Road Safety and Blood Donor Day Campaign, July: International Paramedic Day and International Self-Care Day Campaign, September: World Heart Day Campaign. October: Arthritis Day; November: World Diabetes and Antibiotic Awareness Week; and December: Health Coverage Day.
