SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION EMERGENCY RESCUE SERVICES Why the Maisha Card is a must have Not so many people in Kenya and the East African region consider air evacuation in times of medical emergency. Air evacuation is considered as a costly a..air and a foreign practice. Yet, medical evacuation is a ‘must’ kind of service for almost all of us due to the uncertainty of medical emergencies and tragedies. It is against such a backdrop of perceptions that the AMREF Flying Doctors, a non-profit making organisation, has for the third year, been running an air evacuation scheme. The evacuation scheme dubbed Maisha (meaning, ‘Life’) targets individuals, families, small groups and corporate organisations in the region to be covered for air evacuation when a medical emergency strikes. Maisha Annual Air Ambulance Scheme has made medical evacuation a..ordable and brought it closer to those who need it for as low as Sh1,800 per member per year - for a family/group of four to nine. Each member is entitled to a maximum of two air evacuations and two ground ambulance transfers, within Kenya, per year. The unutilised funds go back to charity evacuations and to Amref Health Africa outreach medical programmes, which have been running for nearly 57 years. The scheme has many payment options including mobile money transfer and credit or debit cards across Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Burundi and South Sudan. Tour operators can cover tourists into Eastern Africa - including Ethiopia and South Sudan - for a period of 30 days. Maisha is underwritten by AIG Kenya, a leading insurance company with a global heritage and backing. AMREF Flying Doctors currently operates a fleet of 18 aircrafts from Wilson Airport. It owns three of these and has contracted the rest through an exclusive lease with Phoenix Aviation. The customised air ambulances are fitted with ultra-modern equipment essential for pre- hospitalization emergency care, and are run by emergency ICU-trained medical team. In 2007, AMREF Flying Doctors was the first non- European, non-US air rescue provider to recieve an accreditation by EURAMI to the level of full accreditation, special care. The government frequently calls upon AMREF Flying Doctors to assist when major tragedies that require medical emergency evacuations occur. The government disaster unit - the National Disaster Operation Centre (NDOC) does not have a single evacuation aircraft. This obviously knocks out of budget for some of AMREF Flying Doctors core functions. Dispatching an air ambulance in response to such requests is very costly. For example, the recent charity evacuation mission to the transfer baby Satrine Osinya from Mombasa to Nairobi cost about Sh700,000. AMREF Flying Doctors would like to respond to more of such requests, however, without support from the government, the financial implications allows only a limited number. The dilapidated state of most airstrips in the country, many of which are not serviceable, is a major hindrance to air ambulance evacuations. The government needs to invest in the improvement such airstrips to make them accessible round the clock. With Maisha, AMREF Flying Doctors is bridging the gap so that ordinary citizens can get better medical assistance. Not many people understand how air evacuation works in their medical policy. Given that dispatching an air ambulance in Kenya is worth over Sh700,000 and is o..ered by a third party; most medical insurers spend a lot of time consulting before a medical evacuation is carried out. Such hours wasted might cost dear life. With Maisha, the beneficiary gets that direct access to AMREF Flying Doctors emergency control centre, which responds swiftly 24 hours in a day. This not only saves life, but also saves on the inpatient upper limit set by medical insurers allowing the patient access to better medical care for longer. The population in Kenya is getting to understand why they need Maisha. The uptake of Maisha has over the last three years increased to over 50,000 subscribers, comprising of many individual Kenyans and corporates. Maisha has four di..erent levels of cover based on geographical coverage. Maisha Bronze covers Kenya. Maisha Silver covers evacuation in Kenya, Tanzania and Zanzibar. Maisha Gold entitles one to evacuation in Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi and Uganda. Maisha Platinum, the apex of the Maisha scheme, covers the larger Eastern Africa including Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda, South Sudan and Ethiopia.
Posted on: Tue, 01 Jul 2014 10:05:01 +0000