Get Guardian on GoogleStakeholders in the healthcare and emergency response sectors have called for a coordinated emergency care system in Nigeria to reduce preventable deaths, improve response times, and ensure that victims receive appropriate medical attention without unnecessary delays.
They made the call at the inaugural ResQ Summit 2026, themed “Building a Coordinated Emergency Care System,” which brought together government officials, healthcare providers, emergency response organisations, health financing experts, technology companies and private sector leaders to explore ways of addressing gaps in the country’s emergency care system.
The summit also featured the launch of ResQCore, a technology platform designed to connect hospitals, ambulance providers, health insurers and other emergency response organisations to improve the coordination and management of emergency medical transport.
The platform uses artificial intelligence (AI)-driven dispatch technology to identify and assign the nearest available ambulance, connect emergency responders with hospitals in real time and provide transparent tracking of critical resources.
These include ambulance locations, hospital bed availability and specialist services, to facilitate timely and appropriate care.
Speaking at the event, the Convener and Chief Executive Officer of The Ambulance Company, ResQCore and TAC Care, Dr Aisha Onisarotu Atanda, said the need for a coordinated system had become increasingly urgent, given the recurring cases of accidents and medical emergencies in which victims struggle to access appropriate assistance.
She explained that emergency care providers, including hospitals, ambulance companies and health maintenance organisations (HMOs), often operated independently, leaving patients and their relatives to navigate the system without the necessary medical knowledge.
According to her, relatives of accident victims are frequently left to determine which emergency number to call, where an ambulance should take the patient and which hospital has the capacity to provide the required treatment.
Atanda further stressed that stronger collaboration among service providers would enable patients to access care through a single point of contact, while ambulance services, hospitals, specialists and other healthcare professionals coordinate the different stages of treatment.
She called on the government and private sector organisations to recognise their complementary roles, with government providing policy direction and community reach, while private operators contribute the operational expertise required to make emergency services function effectively.
Similarly, the Executive Director and Founder of Health Emergency Initiative (HEI), Pascal Achunine, said Nigeria has continued to experience significant gaps in emergency response, ranging from inadequate skills and resources to limited technology and poor emergency care in hospitals.
According to him, the summit provided an opportunity for stakeholders to examine how they could work together to equip ordinary Nigerians with the knowledge and skills to assist before professional responders arrived.
Achunine lamented that people often photograph and record videos of emergency victims instead of offering assistance, stating that chances of survival could improve significantly when bystanders possessed basic emergency response skills, including cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and the use of automated external defibrillators (AEDs).
