KCCA LAUNCHES CITY AMBULANCES

On 16 January 2023, His Worship the Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago accompanied by the Deputy Lord Mayor, authority councilors and the Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) directors for Public Health Services and Environment launched the new state of the art ambulances at a function held at City Hall.

Kampala Capital City Authority boosted its fleet with seven new ambulances, an addition to the exiting five bringing the total number of ambulances managed by the authority to twelve.

“This is a momentous occasion for us as we again register another milestone as we launch these ambulances, it’s a huge development having these high tech ambulances in our city” Lukwago said.

Lukwago who handed over the ambulances to the division mayors, cautioned them to maintain these ambulances properly so that they serve the people of Kampala. He further called on the city residents to also utilize these ambulances.

Lukwago noted that however these ambulances are for the city, they may have to over stretch to areas out of Kampala. “We may not restrict our operations to the boundaries of Kampala because health issues know no boundaries” Lukwago said.

“The city needs over 70 ambulances to have a robust system, and Kampala Capital City Authority now has twelve meaning we still have a long way to go” Lukwago noted.

He thanked both the technical and political wings for working tirelessly to make sure that a functional ambulance system is in place. Lukwago noted that this was the start.

The Director Public Health Services and Environment at KCCA Dr. Daniel Okello thanked the government of Uganda for the support towards realizing this goal.

“We have an emergency response call center at city hall where you can call and request an ambulance for any emergency, our ambulance and emergency services are available 24/7” Okello said

“The ambulances have been labeled with a KCCA toll free number 0800299000, call the number in case of any emergency and our teams will respond immediately, the services are free of charge” Okello said

The seven ambulances were acquired using funds that the government gave to the KCCA Covid19 Taskforce in 2021as a supplementary budget for COVID19 activities.

The KCCA leadership prioritized the purchase of ambulances to ease the pressure on the KCCA medical teams’ response to emergencies in real time and to curb preventable deaths arising from gaps in emergency services.

The ambulances cost around UGX 1.6Bn and each ambulance at about UGX 230m. The ambulances are of two types namely B and C.  

The type B ambulances are equipped with diagnostic equipment, cardio-pulmonary support equipment, monitors and suction machine among others.

The type C is more of an intensive care unit ambulance that comes with advanced life support equipment, the first of its kind in our fleet at city hall.

All this is in line with the smart city campaign where People’s wellbeing is a core pillar.