EMERGENCY MEDICAL SERVICES AND RESCUE

Mi7 National Group is proud to also offer Emergency Medical Services to support and assist our clients, ensuring we not only protect our client’s interests, but ensure their healthy wellbeing as well. While our medics respond to any instance of public distress, we are for a limited time offering our clients access to our medical division.

This will give clients access to our intermediate and advanced life support ambulances and medics. Our ambulances are fitted with Advanced Life Support equipment; Biomedic ECG monitors (allowing us to monitor cardiac pacing and end-tidal carbondioxide levels); defibrillators, ventilators (allowing us to ventilate newborns and adults); and infusion devices.

Therefore, should a client be in medical distress, Mi7 National Group can administer a range of treatments on site, before needing to transport a patient to hospital (transfers charged separately). Mi7 National Group not only has ambulances, but also rapid response medical vehicles which have 4×4 off-road capability. Specialised units in the Mi7 Emergency Medical Services fleet include Rescue Vehicles.

These rescue vehicles have 4×4 capabilities and are further equipped with Light Motor Vehicle and Heavy Motor Vehicle rescue equipment as well as a stoke basket. They are also capable of high-angle rescue and swift water rescue. The Emergency Medical Services division started with two ambulances and a small crew of dedicated paramedics. They were mandated to respond to each and every emergency which came through their telephone line, from motor vehicle accidents, workplace injuries, hospital transfers, and medical call outs. While a nominal fee is
charged for their service, clients without medical aids could pay as little as R70 per month for access to 24-hour medical assistance.

So dedicated to their communities are the division’s medics that they oftentimes went beyond the call of duty to treat and transport injured pets to veterinary clinics. Their efforts did not go unnoticed. The demand for Mi7 National Group’s Emergency Medical Services has grown substantially – the division has quickly become a trusted service provider based on principles of care and compassion. Now, the size of the division has doubled, with more specialised ambulances and rapid medical response vehicles.

An exciting addition to the division has been that of a rescue crew. Mi7 medical rescue vehicles are equipped with state-of-the-art Specialized Hydraulic Rescue Equipment, otherwise known
as the “Jaws of Life”, as well as other equipment used for rope rescue, swift water rescue and hostile environment scenarios. This ensures the Emergency Medical Services is now equipped for any eventuality.

With all these resources now at their disposal, Mi7 medics now respond to between 120 to 170 cases per month. This includes critical response to car crash victims, treating those wounded in criminal incidents or through natural causes, and attending to residents and clients in medical emergencies.

To manage this workload, the size of the team has almost doubled in the space of a year, growing from 16 members to 26 in March 2022. Mi7 Emergency Medical Services also provides stand-offs at events, corporate functions, sporting events, and school sport events. Medics also work closely with primary schools to hold workshops with young children educating them on basic first aid and providing tours of ambulances.

Another essential service introduced within the Emergency Medical Services division is the Community Wellness Programme. Trained nurses were employed and made available free-of-charge, on appointment, to all the company’s Armed Response clients. The team, equipped with their own vehicles and equipment, assessed residents’ vitals (glucose levels, blood pressure, temperature and blood oxygen saturation levels) in the comfort of their homes and provided advice, depending on the outcomes of these tests, on how best to improve their overall wellness.
This initiative was then rolled out to the public at large, with nurses tasked to meet community members in areas of congregation like places of worship and social grant collection sites for example, to administer free vital testing and medical advice on an ongoing basis to those who need it most.

Mi7 nurses now treat on average 180 residents per month – free of charge.