The National Pre-Hospital Emergency Medical Assistance Center was provided with 24 new vehicles. Seventeen of them are type C ambulances (mobile intensive care). These are outfitted with important equipment for critical patients. The new vehicles were distributed to local units, IPN reports.

According to the Center’s director Natalia Catanoi, the pre-hospital emergency medical assistance service is strategic and, owing to the modern equipment with which the ambulances are outfitted, the patients can be stabilized swiftly in emergency departments and the number of deaths has decreased.

Ion Prisăcaru, secretary of state of the Ministry of Health, said the new ambulances will help increase the speed at which qualified first aid is provided in major medical-surgical emergencies. The ambulances have equipment for monitoring all the vital functions so as to safely transport patients to the closest hospital. The given ambulances were distributed as part of a broader program of the Ministry of Health.

Type C ambulances were received by 13 emergency medical assistance substations, in Balti, Drochia, Edineț, Ocnița, Soroca, Cahul, Comrat, Ungheni, Strășeni, Hâncești, and the Chisinau units Centru, Botanica, Râșcani. The seven new B type ambulances went to five substations, in Ialoveni, Cimișlia, Cantemir, Glodeni and Centru (Chisinau), and to two emergency medical assistance units, in Cornești and Zîrnești.

Last July, the ambulance pool of the National Pre-Hospital Emergency Medical Assistance Center was supplemented with 30 properly outfitted vehicles. The distributed ambulances formed part of the consignment of 168 vehicles bought as part of a project financed based on the framework loan agreement between Moldova and the Council of Europe Development Bank.