The Emergency Plus Medical Services (E-Plus), a private Emergency Medical Services and pre-hospital care provider has on Tuesday commissioned two portable isolation chambers.
This will enhance their capacity to respond and safely evacuate suspected and confirmed cases of Covid-19.
The portable isolation chamber is a single patient unit that is designed to transport a contaminated patient or a patient with a risk of biological contamination so as to aid in reducing the risk of contamination during evacuation.
This comes at a time when the country is strained by the increasing rate of the positive cases being registered on daily basis and increase in a number of healthcare providers contracting the virus.
Susan Ng’ong’a, the E-Plus’ Managing Director said that with increasing cases of Covid-19 infections in the country, Portable Isolation Chambers will ensure safe evacuation and reduce risk of contamination to both patients and ambulance crew during evacuation.
Speaking when commissioning the two isolation chambers in Nairobi, Ng’ong’a, said the two will be part of their advanced cardiac life support ambulance equipment.
“E-Plus has been at the forefront in undertaking evacuations to assist the government in COVID-19 mitigation efforts through provision of safe evacuations for suspected and confirmed cases and as such, these units will boost our capacity to respond effectively and safely including regionally with reduced exposure to our ambulance team,” she said.
She added that E-plus has plans to equip all its advanced cardiac life support units with the portable isolation chambers and this adoption will mitigate and reduce the risk of contamination and infection hence creating a safe working environment for the ambulance crew as well as the patients.
“The units also protect the external environment from any contamination that can occur during transportation of the patient and as key players in the health sector, especially in the area of Emergency Medical Services provision, we have taken up the challenge to ensure that we play a key role in reducing the spread of the novel disease”, Ng’ong’a added.
Dr. Christine Memusi, the Medical Director for E-Plus while demonstrating functionality of the unit said that the portable isolation chamber works in negative pressures for the transport of contaminated patients, and can also work in positive pressures to assist patients that might be immune-compromised.
The E-Plus paramedics and ambulance operators, Dr. Memusi said, have taken a thorough training on the application of the newly acquired Portable Isolation Chambers and they will also undertake refresher training before deployment.
E-Plus has been playing critical role in addressing pre-hospital care in the country and in May 2020, they launched a telemedicine platform, eDoc where patients can access clinical services virtually.
E-Plus is the largest private Emergency Medical Services and pre-hospital care provider in East and Central Africa, with a 128 fleet of superior, fully equipped state-of-the-art ambulances manned by qualified paramedics.
By Wangari Ndirangu
