By Chioma Obinna

Worried by the state of emergency response in the country, Federal Government has been urged to establish ambulance points at frequent intervals on major high ways across the nation.

Making the call in a chat with Good Health Weekly, during the 2011 St John Ambulance African Regional Meeting in Lagos, Chairman of the Nigerian chapter Mr. Folarin Mabadeje, said the National Assembly should put structures in place that to ensure all Nigerians, particularly, members of the Armed Forces are trained in health and safety management.

Mabadeje lamented dearth of First Aid in the country, rating the level of emergency response as zero.

The ambulance points, he stated, should be manned by the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) and St John Anbulance to reduce the rate of death on the road daily due to lack of emergency response. “If you look at Lagos – Ibadan expressway, the number of accidents that occur there, is so horrific ,unfortunately, aid does not come easily.

Every Nigerian should be able to handle basic First Aid techniques. You are standing before me, suppose you just fall and collapse, I should be able to assist you. If there is fire in the kitchen, you should know what to do. And if you are driving along the road and you run into an accident, you should be able to apply basic First Aid before an ambulance arrives.”

He was regretful that most hospitals in Nigeria have no ambulances.

“When the Police College was set up, St John was appointed to be training them on First Aid. The Inspector General of Police, was the Vice Chairman in Council of St John Ambulance. Today, successive Police IGs have abandoned the First Aid training aspect of the College and many of them do not know what St John is today. ”

He lamented that that the Association which used to have six ambulances inherited from the Police Officers Wives Association in 1977 can no longer boast of even one as all had been grounded.

“We have been making appeal for ambulances. We have them stationed at Massey St Hospital and LUTH to transport discharged patients who cannot pay their bills or bring sick people from their homes to the hospitals.”

He said St John, Nigeria no longer runs ambulance services but is concentrating on training for First Aid.

“Nigeria is not doing well in ambulance services. In Ghana for instance, there are subventions for St Johns, here, we have written and written, we used to be a ward of the Ministry of Health when Dr. Adapter was the minister, but after the man died, the others who took over from him did not know anything about St Johns.”

Speaking, the Sub Prior, Professor Villis Marshal from Australia and staff of the St John International office based in London, explained that the conference which holds every 18 months was to deliberate on issues which concern the functioning of African associations with a view to strengthening St John’s course in serving humanity.

Marshall said the meeting would explore opportunities on possible expansion of st John’s activities in Nigeria as well as strategies on new ways of reaching the various communities.