State to absorb emergency medical technicians

St. John Ambulance CEO Harun Gikera and Dr Simon Kibias head directorate of health standards quality assurance hands over a trophy to Joyce Joan Macharia for being one of the two top students during St. John emergency medical technicians graduation. [Wilberforce Okwiri, Standard]

The government is developing a scheme of service for technicians providing emergency medical services.

The personnel known as Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs) are critical because they are the first to respond in case of an incident.

They are trained medical technicians unlike First Aiders, who do pre-hospital care, establishing the health status of a patient or arranging for referral in case of lack of facilities or enough capacity to do that.

Health Cabinet Secretary Mutagi Kagwe said the government is aware of the efforts by some counties to employ these technicians.

‘‘We are engaging stakeholders to develop a scheme of service for this cadre. Successful development of this important document will go a long way in facilitating the absorption of emergency medical technicians into the public service,’’ said Kagwe.

Kagwe said the ministry had appointed a National Emergency Medical Care Steering Committee for three years. It will coordinate emergency service provision.

In a speech read on his behalf by Dr Simon Kibias, Head of Health Standards and Quality Assurance at Ministry of Health during the graduation of 32 technicians from St John Ambulances at South C, Nairobi, the CS said the committee will provide oversight. 

President Uhuru Kenyatta is the patron of St John Ambulance Kenya, which started working in Kenya in 1923. It now has two centres in Nairobi and Mombasa.

Developing a national guideline for emergency medical care, harmonising training curriculum for paramedics and EMTs will be another role, Kagwe added.

Other roles will be developing a framework for the utilisation of emergency treatment fund and planning and advising the ministry on emergency medical care service provision and strategies. The CS said the ministry has made strides in the development of requisite frameworks to strengthen emergency care.