A Ugandan delegation from the Ministry of Health and the Association of Ambulance Professionals Uganda (AAPU) visited Germany from October 6-12, 2024. The focus was on quality management and control. In November 2021, the Ugandan EMS policy (Emergency Medical Services) and the associated strategy for implementing the specified standards, SOPs and algorithms were adopted. As a result, the Ugandan Ministry of Health, led by the Emergency Medical Services Department, has been assigned far-reaching tasks in the area of quality management and control for emergency medical services.
Due to a lack of personnel capacity and the fact that the Ministry of Health is still developing specialist skills, the Ugandan Ministry of Health would like to transfer this trustworthy task to the AAPU, which has already been providing support for many years. The key questions here are:
-How can this transfer succeed?
-What structures need to be created for this?
-How can quality assurance and control tasks be carried out?
The two-person Ugandan delegation, consisting of the Commissioner of the Ministry of Health and the representative of the AAPU President, discussed these issues with us and partners from our network in Switzerland. In the Swiss rescue service system, the respective cantons are responsible and have also outsourced the area of certification and quality assurance to a professional association, the IVR Interverband Rettungswesen. As this best-practice example could serve as a blueprint for Uganda, the exchange with the Swiss colleagues was very exciting for the Ugandan delegation. In addition to the stay at the Interverband Rettungsdienst in Lucerne, the delegation visited
-the Bavarian Ministry of the Interior in Munich with a presentation on the main features of the rescue service in Bavaria with a focus on quality management and quality assurance
-the INM – Institute for Emergency Medicine and Medical Controlling at LMU, with a scientific focus on determining the location of rescue resources and their evaluation
-the BRK regional association, as the largest rescue service provider in Bavaria
-as well as the state fire department school in Geretsried, which is responsible for the qualification of managers in disaster control. A visit to the integrated control center in Nuremberg, a Malteser rescue station and the bildung37° education center rounded off the stay. The Ugandan delegation set off on their return journey with plenty of ideas and inspiration to put the knowledge gained into practice at home.
Visit by a Ugandan delegation
