Utilization of Emergency Medical Services in Mauritius

Abstract

The SAMU, ‘Service d’ Aide Medicale Urgente’, was set up in Mauritius in December 1997 in collaboration with University of Bordeaux II, with the Ministry of Health and Quality of Life and the Mauritian Institute of Health in a bid to offer pre-hospital emergency treatment to people in distress. Recorded data concerning the public use of the service were analyzed: 1,967 run sheets were investigated and trends were identi-fied. The study showed that a large proportion of the service is being used by the aged, and the commonest reasons for calling SAMU were road traffic accidents, cardiac problems and bronchial asthmas. The rate of use of the service is almost the same for every day of the week, although it is more in demand between 0900 hours to 1500 hours. The emergency teams of Jeetoo and Victoria hospitals are more solicited than the others, and the Flacq hospital team was utilized in only 10 per cent of the total number of interventions. As expected, the demand on the service is increasing, resulting in a need for additional staff and other resources. Future studies could examine response times and patients’ satisfaction with the service.