E-Plus, Garissa county partner to launch 24-hour ambulance services

Emergency Plus Medical Services (E-Plus) in conjunction with the Garissa County Government on Friday unveiled a 24-hour Ground Ambulance Service to the residents of Garissa County.

E-Plus is back in the county after a 5-year break from when it partnered with the County from 2014-2018 in providing ground ambulance services to residents spread across all the 7 sub-counties.

Garissa County Governor Nathif Jama and Managing Director, Susan Ng’ong’a flagged off the 5 Ambulances at the county headquarters.

Speaking during the event, Governor Jama underscored the importance of this critical service to Garissa residents noting that the county is vast.

With challenging terrain, the provision of 24-hour ground ambulance services will come in very handy in easing the prompt transfer of patients in far-flung areas to medical facilities.

“When it comes to medical emergencies, we are aware that time is of the utmost importance. Our ground ambulance services are made to answer emergency calls swiftly and evacuate patients to the closest facility for additional care. I guarantee Garissa residents that they will receive the utmost care and attention because we now have state-of-the-art ambulances spread out across the county,” said Governor Nathif.

On her part, the (E-Plus) Managing Director noted that the service was of high significance as it would help in evacuating patients to medical facilities within the shortest time possible while also giving them critical care in transit.

‘We understand that time is of the essence when it comes to medical emergencies. Our ground ambulance services are designed to respond quickly to emergency calls and transport patients to the nearest medical facility for further care,”

She assured the governor that they will work closely with the local hospitals and healthcare providers to ensure that Garissa's residents receive the best possible care and treatment.

“As we launch our ground ambulance services, we would like to thank the Garissa County Government, led by the Governor for his support and collaboration in making this possible.  In a special way, I would like to recognize and appreciate the Governor for his leadership and for seeing the importance of having a functional health system for the County. I would like to assure you that we will work closely with the County Ministry of Health in making Garissa County improve its health indicators to where it was previously."

Assembly Majority Leader Abubakar Khalif said that the Ambulances will go long way in reducing the maternal mortality rates in our county which remain high.

“On behalf of my colleagues I want to give an assurance the County Assembly will continue working closely with the Executive in ensuring that healthcare provision is improved by making sure that we appropriate more funds to this critical docket,” he said.

Health Executive Ahmednadhir Omar said the new ambulances would complement, support and augment the efforts of the existing referral services.

He called on stakeholders to work together to promote quality healthcare while at the same time lauding the efforts of the county health team for the job they were doing.

“Quality healthcare is a very important tool for our county development, for as is rightly said, a healthy people, make a healthy nation,” he said.

E-Plus is the largest private Emergency Medical Services and pre-hospital care provider in East and Central Africa, with 128 fleets of superior, fully equipped state-of-the-art ambulances, manned by highly qualified paramedics and experienced in pre-hospital care.

The company is fully owned by the Kenya Red Cross Society.