New rules seek to improve emergency medical response

ASTANANew rules for emergency medical care will provide high-quality emergency medical assistance, according to Vice Minister of Healthcare Lyazzat Aktayeva.036

“Now there are four categories for emergency calls, three of them have potential and immediate threats to life and health, ambulances will immediately go out for such calls. The fourth category is calls of chronic patients, which will be redirected to emergency medical care centres in polyclinics that will take on calls 24 hours a day without days off. This will allow the ambulance to focus on first three categories of calls,” Aktayeva informed.

The analysis showed that when ambulances leave for patients with chronic diseases, they may be late for patients with a life-threatening case.  Also, Aktayeva noted that the rules prescribed compulsory training for ambulance attendants.

“Further, the rules stipulate training of emergency doctors in accordance with the international standards of emergency medical care. In addition, the regulation describes that the ambulance services of district hospitals are integrated with the regional ambulance. Accordingly, there will be a single service, equipped with GPS navigators,” she informed.

According to Aktayeva, this will enable monitoring and quick delivery of ambulances to patients.

“The Ministry of Healthcare is introducing a new specialty – a doctor of emergency medical care. Previously, it was enough to undergo training for such specialists, but from now on it is necessary to study. They will work at the hospital admissions and carry out the so-called sorting of calls. We believe new rules will ensure the provision of high-quality emergency medical assistance,” Aktayeva concluded.


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