In the News
Flying Doctors Nigeria Partners with INEC
Unlike the Helen of Troy whose phenomenal beauty inspired a thousand tragic myths, Ola Orekunrin’s face evokes no mean feat. Yet her face is remarkably different. It is the face of the future.
And she has got brains too. Recently, the 24-year-old British trained medical practitioner in a rare move established a partnership with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). And what is she selling? A casualty-free general elections courtesy her Flying Doctors Nigeria (FDN) initiative.
The service which is the first of its kind in West Africa service is completely physician-led and adheres to the highest standards of medical practice. Little wonder the national electoral regulatory body considers it a worthy partner in its bid to conduct a free, fair and casualty-free general elections come April 2011.
Supported by the East Anglian Air Ambulance (EAAA), United Kingdom (UK), FDN will be providing emergency and comprehensive healthcare services should there be casualties in disturbances in political hot zones across the country.
The FDN-INEC partnership among other things is geared to guarantee the best standard of air ambulance cover and emergency healthcare services during the April 2011 general elections thus making it the first of its kind in the history Nigerian political transition programmes.
The FDN initiative, a brainchild of Orekunrin is at core, a profit-making social enterprise established to provide rapid air ambulance services to foremost health institutions, embassies, corporate business organisations, and private individuals within Nigeria and across the West African region.
However, most of the company’s profits go into the Flying Doctors Foundation (FDF) which aims to provide the finance for various projects in medical education and healthcare within FDN partner states.
FDN flaunts doctors who have been trained to international standards and worked through serious devastation and crises situations as the London underground explosions and several earthquakes in Asia. Hence the team’s enviable experience in managing major incidents
The personnel’s years of experience in both acute medicine and the aviation industries serves as a remarkable fillip to the group’s objective to run a highly reliable and cost effective door to door air ambulance service, 24 hours a day and 365 days a year. The group also offers training from basic first aid right through to advanced life support, intensive and ground-breaking clinical and research consultancy.
FDN supplies strategically placed air ambulances and medical crews throughout the country providing a rapid response service to even the most complicated medical transport requests. These services are targeted to the oil & gas, manufacturing and construction industries. They are generally supplied directly to the companies concerned, although in special cases through strategic partners such as HMO’S (Health Maintenance Organisations) and insurance companies.
This is in bid to improve the current poor running time of arrival to hospital in, for instance, Lagos post-trauma incidences currently calculated at an incredibly poor three to four hour time span. Poor road conditions, the inadequate number of hospitals equipped to handle major trauma, traffic congestion and the abominable distances to the nearest hospitals all contribute to the challenges the FDN addresses with its rapid response air transportation service.
FDN also provide services for patients wishing to leave the country. This means that time outside of hospital is decreased for critically ill patients, decreasing the chance that the patient’s condition will deteriorate whilst out of hospital.
The first air ambulance was proposed in 1960 for Nigeria. Since then there had been a lot of talk about the expediency in the institution of such life-saving venture, but no action. FDN however, decided to seize the initiative thus its establishment of the crucial services it renders.
Therefore, for the first time ever in Nigeria and throughout West Africa, having an accident on a highway or sustaining grievous injuries in natural or manmade disasters and political unrest does not actually have to pass as a death sentence. Patients can be airlifted within a 30 minute time count from the period of injury and transferred speedily between hospitals for treatment and ultimately, the comfort of every medical institution’s golden hour; hour of survival, that is.
Press Release
Bobby Taylor PR
For further information and up-to-date news regarding Flying Doctors Nigeria you can check out Dr Ola Orekunrin's blog at:
http://droladavinci.blogspot.com
