By Murtala Muhammad
State Emergency Medical Service and Ambulance System (SEMSAS) has sensitised Triage Officers and Mama2Mama support group from ten federal wards in Dass Local Government Area of Bauchi state on free emergency transportation for pregnant women and newborn babies.
The initiative, known as the Save Mama Digital Platform, enables emergency requests to be lodged for prompt response from the call centre using the nearest registered vehicle to reach patients.
Save Mama is being implemented under the Maternal and Newborn Mortality Reduction Innovative Initiative through the Rural Emergency Service and Maternal Transport (RESMAT) project designed to support mothers and newborns.
Speaking at a town hall meeting, the SEMSAS Consultant for Bauchi State, Dr Aminu Tukur Sulaiman, said the sensitisation was to acquaint the triage officers with the digital platform.
Dr Sulaiman explained that the programme provides a dedicated phone line for women to contact a Triage Officer in their various wards or the central call centre in Abuja, describe their location and receive quick transportation to take them to health facility.
According to him, the programme was introduced by the Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Muhammad Ali Pate, aimed at to reducing maternal and newborn deaths, with about one hundred and seventy two benefiting local governments in the country.
He said the programme had reached about four thousand nine hundred beneficiaries from June 2024 to date, against a target of five thousand women and newborns.
Speaking to Radio Nigeria, a Triage Officer, Bara’atu Abubakar from Wandi Ward, said they served as intermediaries linking the beneficiaries with service providers for timely emergency response.
A pregnant woman, Rahina Aliyu, described the initiative as timely considering the prevailing economic situation and expressed appreciation to both federal and state governments for sustaining the programme.