Uganda Red Cross launches first aid training school, commercial ambulance services

The Uganda Red Cross Society (URCS) has launched commercial ambulance services for the members of the public who can afford to pay for use as well as a first aid training school.

The launch was done on Friday at the URCS headquarters in Kampala.

Speaking during the launch, URCS General Secretary, Robert Kwesiga said they have gone through turbulent times in the last five years, it is time to look at self-sustaining themselves by commercializing some services.

“ In the last five years or so we have been trying to get back to our feet. Our main focus moving forward is in sustainability in service delivery, reach out to those who need our services but also do it in pragmatic manners. One of the ways to get money is take advantage of services we give to members of the public but have balance between services we give to the vulnerable and going commercial,”Kwesiga said.

“We have organized ourselves to ensure the ambulances can make some money for us from those who want our services.”

He explained that Uganda Red Cross Society will continue giving first aid and ambulance services free of charge to the vulnerable but also those who need their services and can afford to pay will also be catered for.

“We are making a distinction. The ambulances doing public health emergency services will be assigned to that duty as we continue saving millions of lives as we have done over the years. We decided that alongside the public emergency services, we took can make some money from ambulances got from other sources and are not part of the public service fleet.”

The URCS General Secretary said the two fleets will be marked differently to avoid confusion.

“We have made a deliberate effort to make them distinct from the other public ones so that public is not confused.”

On the state of the art first aid training school, Kwesiga said they will be offering international training services to members of the public to get skills in first aid.

He said this is also another way Uganda Red Cross Society seeks to make money for self sustainance.

“We have bought more training equipment such that we train with modern and right tools at our state of the art first aid training school.”

Kwesiga revealed that they will have training schools in all regions of the country but also built another training centre in Mukono.

Dr. John Baptist Waniaye, the Commissioner for emergency health services at the Ministry of Health hailed Uganda Red Crossfor offering emergency services to members of the public whenever need arises.

URCS is a very fast responder. Whenever a call is made to them, they respond in great time. It is why MOH takes it particular to build this strong relationship. The Ministry of Health has at least one type B ambulance for every 100,000 people. The right target for WHO in developing countries is one ambulance per 70,000 people. The initiative of commercial ambulance services will help us achieve the WHO target,”Dr.Waniaye said.

He noted that commercialized ambulance services will help augmenting the already available public ambulance services to ensure everyone is covered.

“You will need to do awareness for people to be aware of the commercial ambulance services. It is a good venture for the self-sustenance of Uganda Red Cross Society.”

The Commissioner for emergency health services at the Ministry of Health also hailed Red Cross for the initiative of a first aid training school that he said will ensure many people are equipped with skills.