Sh60m emergency roadside centres to treat crash victims

More roadside emergency response centres are set to be built near black spots on the Nairobi-Nakuru-Eldoret Highway to help road crashes survivors get first aid.

Khamas Yarsin, chief executive officer, Nurse in Hand Emergency Response — a provider of mobile-based health solutions — said the Sh60 million initiative is intended to deliver speedy response to victims of road accidents along the busy stretch that has experienced several crashes.

“The road-side centres are aimed at providing services to accident victims in black spot areas. Previous statistics reveals that a large number of people die along the killer stretch because of delayed access to quality services,” stated Mr Yarsin.

Out of the Sh60 million allocation, Sh27 million is set aside to purchase motorcycles equipped with emergency medical response kits, while Sh33 million will be used to construct care centres and hire medical assistants.

Mr Yarsin said five emergency centres have already been established along the busy highway at Delamare, Mbaruk, Sachang’wan, Kikopey and Kinungi areas.

Additionally, the emergency response centres have been established in a number of hospitals including Naivasha, Nakuru Level Five, Gilgil and Molo sub-county hospitals.

“Nakuru was reported the second county after Nairobi with the highest number of road carnage with various black spots along the highway including Salgaa, Migaa, Sachang’wan and Kikopey and this has prompted the establishment of emergency response centers,” said Mr Yarsin.

Other counties located along the Northern Corridor with high number of road accidents include Mombasa, Machakos, Nyandarua, Kericho, Uasin Gishu, Kakamega, Bungoma, Makueni and Kisumu.

Mr Yarsin said the 18 percent of the country’s road facilities are situated along the Northern Corridor route between Mombasa and Kisumu.

Several motorcycles, which will be operated by trained medical assistants, have already been bought.

“They are standard emergency response motorcycles installed with a first-aid kit, pannier boxes and a radio system that will be used for communication,” said Mr Yarsin.

He added that the emergency response system uses a mobile device application code and the public can fill in data when accidents occur. The system is activated in command centres within 30 seconds leading to the dispatch of paramedics who will attend to the victims and wait for referral services.

“The paramedics located along the highway will get to the scene of the accident, attend to the injured and wait for the ambulance,” he said adding that each emergency centre will be managed by eight skilled medical assistants.

The organisation has so far identified a number of matatu Saccos that are operating along the Nairobi-Nakuru-Eldoret highway whose drivers will be trained on how to send alerts to emergency systems to report accidents along the highway.