Flying Doctors Nigeria, a medical emergency service that specialises in air ambulances, has advocated for regional integration of medical services in the West African sub-region.
The organisation’s founder, Ola Brown, says regional integration will help the region to develop “medical centres of excellence that can receive large volumes of specialist medical cases.”
Speaking in Banjul, The Gambia, during this year’s West African College of Surgeons (WACS) conference and scientific meeting, Brown explained in a statement that these centres would help medical personnel to “develop expertise in very specific areas of medicine.”
The West African College of Surgeons (WACS) annual meeting is one of the most prestigious medical conferences in Africa. The conference, according to the statement, was attended by surgeons from West African countries. This year’s WACS conference had “Global Surgery Implementation for West Africa” as its theme.
Speaking further on international collaboration in the region, Brown stated that air ambulance services should be key part of the region’s medical sector co-operation.
She explained that air ambulance services are capable of enhancing the region’s medical collaboration by “facilitating transportation of patients across large distances in very short timeframes.”
West Africa has some of the poorest health outcomes in the world in form of high maternal mortality rates, high child mortality rates and high mortality rates.
The healthcare expert stated that air ambulance services can help patients save lives by “circumventing the region’s infrastructural challenges, such as poorly maintained roads common in the region.”
Flying Doctors Nigeria is West Africa’s first and leading air ambulance service organisation based in Nigeria. Established almost 10 years ago, the firm airlifts patients across the world in medically equipped aircrafts for specialist medical attention.
Brown explained that air ambulance services make it easier for medical experts to refer patients that cannot be handled in their home countries to other countries in the sub-region where such ailments can effectively be treated.
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