Benin, Edo – A severe shortage of emergency ambulance services in Primary Health Care Centers (PHCs) across Edo State is raising alarm among healthcare providers and families, posing a significant threat to the survival rates of premature infants.
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‎As revealed by recent assessments and corroborated by local health authorities, the lack of adequate emergency medical transportation is exacerbating an already precarious situation in a region grappling with high neonatal mortality rates.
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‎The Edo State Primary Health Care Development Agency (EDSPHCDA), established in 2019 to enhance healthcare access, has acknowledged the strain on its network of integrated PHCs.
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‎While the agency provides promotive, preventive, curative, and rehabilitative services across the state, the pilot phase of the Edo Emergency Medical Services (Edo EMS), launched in May 2024, remains limited to three Local Government Areas (LGAs)—Oredo, Ikpoba Okha, and Egor.
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‎Residents in these areas can access emergency services, but the service’s restricted scope leaves vast rural and semi-urban regions, without timely medical support.
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‎Medical experts warn that the absence of rapid ambulance response is particularly detrimental to premature infants, whose survival often hinges on immediate access to neonatal intensive care units (NICUs).
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‎A recent study highlighted by the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) underscores the importance of antenatal steroid administration and swift medical intervention in improving survival rates for preterm babies.
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‎However, without reliable transportation, many infants born outside Benin City faces delayed treatment, increasing the risk of mortality.
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‎Local healthcare workers report that the situation is dire, with some families resorting to private vehicles or motorbikes to rush premature infants to hospitals, often arriving too late.
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‎"Recently, a woman delivered inside Keke (commercial tricycle) in front of the health center. We were now looking for an emergency vehicle to take the new born baby to specialist hospital because he was preterm (premature) to avoid exposure to air.
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‎"While we attended to the mother, it was somebody who later volunteered a vehicle to take the baby to specialist, before the mother joined her baby later", a staff at Ikhuenirho Health Center narrated to Daily South Nigeria
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‎The crisis is compounded by Nigeria’s broader maternal and child health challenges, with the 2021 Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) and NDHIS 2018 reporting an infant mortality ratio of 68 per 1,000 live births in neighboring Ogun State—a statistic likely mirrored in Edo due to similar infrastructural gaps.
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‎The recent partnership between Emergency Response Africa (ERA) and the Ogun State Government to launch the Rural Maternal Health Emergency Transportation (R-MHET) service offers a glimmer of hope, utilizing USSD and SMS-based dispatch solutions to save lives. However, no such initiative has been scaled in Edo State, leaving its rural populations vulnerable.
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‎However, the state government has pledged to address the challenge head on in collaboration with the federal government to provide emergency ambulance services, and possible partnership with transport unions in case of emergencies needing specialist treatments.
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‎"We are currently working alongside the federal government, through its Hope health project and States emergency treatments committee initiatives, to attend to emergency cases free of charge whether the patient is vulnerable or not.
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‎"This includes the provision of emergency ambulance services, to also cater pregnant women in rural areas.", Dr. Oghenekaro Onoriose, technical assistant to Edo health commissioner, Dr. Cyril Oshiomhole told this online newspaper on Monday
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