More than 50,000 Kenyans have been rescued from fatal road crashes since 2014 courtesy of a partnership between Emergency Plus (Eplus) services and the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF).
Records at NHIF shows that the thousands of Kenyans who could have died were attended to and evacuated to hospitals for emergency care.
The partnership – which E-Plus hopes will be renewed – has enabled poor people in the country to benefit from a 24-round the clock road evacuation services, according to the NHIF.
A brief note seen by The Informer shows that road evacuations for emergency care, stabilisation on site and provision of high quality pre-hospital care on transit, has saved many lives.
“This partnership has seen transportation of sick members of the NHIF and their dependants for treatment to the nearest accredited health facilities.” NHIF says.
Fully equipped ambulances and crew have been made available across the country with the nearest available ambulance dispatched to emergency locations based on membership validity.
The nearest available ambulance, according to Fund’s Chief Executive Officer Dr. Peter Kamunyo, shall be dispatched to the location or site after verifying membership validity.
“These are some of the new services the NHIF has been adding to the medical scheme,” the National Assembly Health Committee heard recently when they toured the NHIF head office.
The beneficiaries of the contract include all the NHIF national scheme members all over Kenya.
A total of 128 fully equipped ambulances and crew have been availed countrywide for this service. The service is only open to emergency evacuations and to all NHIF National Scheme Members.
The service is available on a 24-hour basis and any declared member of the NHIF National Scheme can access it by contacting the E-Plus Dispatch Centre on 0700 395 395/0738 395 395, Toll Free; 1514 or the NHIF contact Centre on 0800 720 801.
“The caller should state the principal member’s full name, NHIF number, location, nature of emergency, and telephone number,” NHIF stated.
The partnership with E-Plus Services through Kenya Red Cross Society (KRCS) is for the provision of emergency road ambulance services to all NHIF national scheme members.
This partnership – which started in 2014 – has enabled low-income earners to benefit from countrywide, unlimited 24-hour emergency road evacuations.