NEMA trains 45 NYSC members to boost ambulance services in Abuja

With the deployment of Mobile Intensive Care Units (MICU) to strategic locations for emergency response, the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) has engaged the training of 45 members of the National Youth Service Corps who are serving in the agency for participation in the ambulance services of the emergency response activities. 

The Director-General of NEMA, Muhammad Sani Sidi, while declaring open the training in Abuja recently, said that the programme is aimed at mobilising corps members towards complementing the staff of the agency in the provision of immediate basic life support services under emergency situations.

Muhammed Sani Sidi represented by NEMA’s Director of Search and Rescue, Charles Otegbade, who is also an Air Commodore indicated that the emergency response capability of the Agency is being repositioned to make it more proactive in responding to emergencies. He added that participants of the training programme are to be drilled on casualty handling, pre-hospital trauma and movement of equipment to the scene of incidence.

The NEMA Boss explained that participants would also be trained on how to administer basic life support, first aid materials, dressing and cold compresses. The other skills, he mentioned are bandage and bandaging as well as how to remove clothing and head gears from casualties.

He further revealed that the training would focus on administering first aid in common emergencies such as fractures, bleeding and burns, shocks, asthma and choking. Adding, it will also include head injury and spinal injury as well as cardiac arrest and unconsciousness.

According him, the officers will be taught the basic components of the mobile intensive care unit ambulance and how it is operated. He urged the participants to translate the experience gained from the training into saving the lives of Nigerians during emergencies.

Also speaking, the Head of NEMA’s MICU, Bala Alti advised officers to shun engaging in heroic rescue operations that are capable of endangering their lives. He also called on trainees to exhibit confidence while attending to victims during emergencies.

In another development, NEMA in December 2013 commissioned its first Ambulance Bay along the Airport Road in Abuja and has lately deployed ambulances to strategic locations in Abuja and its environs. The Agency also operates a 24-hour standby emergency response service in its headquarters as well as the zonal offices.