Pre-hospital care is defined as the initial care provided at the scene. It includes triage, initial treatment, and transport of the patient. This is usually provided by emergency medical services (EMS) responders. Pre-hospital care is a very important part of the continuum of emergency health care. It is especially important to life-threatening conditions. As the initial point of contact, pre-hospital care providers such as EMTs and paramedics are in a position to give timely life-saving procedures and drastically improve patient outcomes. It is an understatement that without them, there will be higher rates of mortality due to the considerable delay in treatment.
An excellent pre-hospital system also improves access to health care. This is especially relevant in our situation in the Philippines. Since the Philippines is an archipelago composed of 7,107 islands, it can be difficult to access health care, especially in rural areas or isolated islands. This inequity in access is also magnified by the devolution of our health care system, meaning the delivery of health care programs will depend on the prioritization of the local government unit. If health is not a priority of the LGU, health care quality will be poor. Pre-hospital care bridges the gap between the community and the health care system. In countries with limited resources like ours, it can be helpful to establish a pre-hospital system at the community level. This can be done by recruiting and educating selected volunteers from the community. An example of this pre-hospital care at the community level is the human ambulance from the documentary “Ambulansyang Paa”. Due to the lack of doctors and the lack of safe roads that ambulances can traverse, residents of Sitio Dyandang are forced to bring their ill community members to the nearest health care facility by foot. The human ambulance symbolizes the Filipino ingenuity and the Bayanihan spirit. However, in my opinion, there are only so much things that the human ambulance or pre-hospital care can do. It is important to improve the overall health care system, not just pre-hospital care. Hence, in the case of Sitio Dyandang, instead of a human ambulance, it is much better if there is a doctor or health facility nearby.