Prehospital emergency care and injury prevention in Sudan

Introduction Emerging opportunities exist to improve prehospital emergency care and injury prevention in Sudan. This article aims to provide a description of the status of prehospital emergency care and injury prevention in Sudan, identify opportunities for improvement, create awareness, and initiate discussion around the development of EMS in Sudan. Sudan lags behind neighbouring Tanzania in terms of EMS development. Violent conflict and natural disaster place an enormous burden on the already fragile emergency care infrastructure. The need for an effective emergency prehospital care system in this setting is critical. Methods Qualitative descriptive data were collected in collaboration between Sudanese and United States based physicians from September 2008 to February 2014 from Sudan's Ministry of Health paper registries, internet, interviews, and empirical observations. Results In the capital Khartoum, the government operates 67 ambulances, with a further 30 ambulances in Darfur, making a total of 97 state operated ambulances in the entirety of Sudan. Ambulance crews comprise two emergency care assistants without certification. Ambulance transport costs are covered mostly by out-of-pocket cash payment and via insurance for the privileged few. The existing 24h a day – 7days a week ambulance service in Khartoum is coordinated from a central dispatch centre reached by dialling "333". Conclusion Due to an absence of published literature in Sudan, much of the data have been recorded from paper records and empirical observations. Prehospital care and injury prevention in the Sudan is a recent initiative, but it is developing into a promising model with many opportunities for improvement. This momentum should be nurtured and requires a purposive, collective collaboration to draw a blueprint for a locally relevant, effective and efficient prehospital system in Sudan. It is hoped that this article will highlight and encourage further progress.