Ethiopia: development of emergency services

Status: In progress

Timeframe: 2021-2023

Name of project: Supporting the development of the emergency service system in Ethiopia

Region: Ethiopia

Direct actions: Addis Abeba

Donor: Ministry of International Affairs of the Republic of Poland (the ‘Polish Aid’ program)

Main aims:
Complex support of the Ethiopian Ministry of Health in creating the emergency service system in a population of 110 million, practically from scratch. Also supporting them through:

• Equipment supply for the Ethiopian Emergency Medical Team and Ethiopian Medical Training Center
• Retrofitting ambulances with a specialized life-saving gear
• Rising the personnel’s qualifications, certifying the ER personnel, and providing specialized medical training for instructors

Actions:
The PCPM Foundation plans to act on two fronts: providing specialized medical gear and professional medical training.

Medical equipment support

• Retrofitting ambulances with life-saving equipment (including defibrillators). In the primary phase of the project (2021), the emphasis of the activities is on achieving noticeable results quickly by providing Ethiopia with 50 sets of medical equipment for ambulances, which, due to the short lead time, will have to be transported by air. Retrofitting 50 ambulances will increase the number of ambulances with life-saving equipment fivefold (until now, this country of 110 million had only 10 ambulances, whose equipment is equivalent to a basic ambulance in Poland).
• Retrofitting Ethiopia’s main ALERT medical training center in Addis Ababa training medics from all over the country. The supplied equipment (including phantoms, drainers, and defibrillators) will come in handy in future training of instructor cadres and the first group of paramedics.
  Supplying the Ethiopian Medical Rescue Team with a tent and professional medical equipment.
• Training support – as paramedicine is a new profession in Ethiopia and training (both vocational and university level) does not provide opportunities for hands-on experience, educating the cadre of paramedics is crucial.

The PCPM Foundation project involves:

• training of ambulance crews, hospital emergency departments, and the Ethiopian Medical Emergency Team
• training of rescue trainers – as it is important to us that the project has a long-term impact. The training will use specialized phantoms provided by the PCPM
• training support for firefighters – one-week refresher training (after training conducted in previous years)
• continuous training, including the development, in cooperation with the Ethiopian Ministry of Health, of an e-learning system allowing for the professional development of paramedics and, in the long run, the implementation of part of the training remotely.

Some Ethiopian instructors will conduct these pieces of training with guidance from Polish instructors.

In the first phase in 2021, the training will be attended primarily by medics from Addis Ababa and surrounding areas. In the following year, PCPM plans to expand beyond the capital. In addition, we will send a Polish long-term expert whose task will be to provide ongoing support to the Ministry of Health in the rescue system development based on the experience and solutions from Poland.

Recipients:
100 members of medical personnel and firefighters, as well as 10 trainers of medical personnel, will be the direct recipients of the first phase of the project (2021) and participate in the training courses.
Indirect beneficiaries of the project will be residents of major regional cities: Addis Ababa, Hawassa, Bahir Dar, Jimmy, and Harar, where the donated medical equipment will go to provide better and faster assistance in case of an accident.

The PCPM Foundation project is financed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland from the Polish Development Assistance budget. The project’s budget is PLN 5,991,490.