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| L-R: Mr Fortune Idu, Nigeria Aviation Awards (NIGAV) Chairman; Dr Ola Brown, Flying Doctors Nigeria Founder and Pirjo Suomela-Chowdhury, Finland’s Ambassador to Nigeria, after Brown received ‘2017 Aviation Most Remarkable Medical Personality Award’ from NIGAV in Lagos, recently. |
•Win Aviation Award
By Chioma Umeha
Flying Doctors Nigeria has called on Nigeria and other
African countries to incorporate air ambulance services into their health
sector.
Making the call in Lagos at weekend, Flying Doctors Nigeria
Founder, Dr Ola Brown, stated that Nigeria, along with other African countries,
needs air ambulance services more than developed countries, because of the
various challenges bedeviling their health sector.
Dr Brown said this
after receiving 2017 Aviation Most Remarkable Medical Personality Award
from the Nigeria Aviation Awards (NIGAV) in Lagos.
NIGAV is a prestigious annual award conferred on outstanding
individuals and corporate bodies who have distinguished themselves in the
Nigerian aviation sector.
The 2017 award, which was bestowed on Brown by NIGAV this
year, is a recognition of Flying Doctors Nigeria’s role in saving lives during
critical and emergency situations in sub-Sahara Africa.
Receiving the award, Brown stated that she is grateful for
the recognition, adding that the award will propel her to use Flying Doctors
Nigeria as a platform to rescuing more lives during critical times.
Brown said: “I am highly elated by this award. As
physicians, we at Flying Doctors Nigeria are using a combination of medicine
and aviation to get patients who live in West African sub-region to the right
medical facilities at the right timeframe.
“This award further shows that our activities are not
unnoticed by aviation watchers. It is a clarion call for us at Flying Doctors
Nigeria to do more.”
She explained that it is a misconception to think that air
ambulance services are meant for only people in the developed world.
Brown said: “I think a lot of people have this misconception
that air ambulance services are just for developed countries. My vision in
bringing this concept of air ambulance services to Africa is because it is even
more important for West Africa than it is for the developed world.
“One of the reasons is due to our lack of infrastructure; we
have poor seasonal roads in many parts of African. So, it makes it even more
important for us to circumvent that challenge by air when getting patients to
hospitals from hard-to- reach locations.
“The second reason is due to the fact that the distance
between patients and hospitals is a lot farther than it is in the developed
countries. The third reason is attributed to the number of inadequate doctors
we have in West Africa.”
Brown noted that there is a need to render prompt medical
services to people in need to save the lives of over one billion people who
lose their lives globally due to lack of timely medical interventions.
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