Redesigning Prehospital Care: Fiji's Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

The benefits of emergency care systems in low- and middle-income countries are well-described. Passed in the wake of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, the World Health Assembly (WHA) Resolution 76.2 emphasizes the importance of communication, transportation and referral mechanisms, and the linkages between communities, primary care, and hospital care. Literature describing prehospital care and ambulance system development is scarce, with little data on the effectiveness and cost effectiveness of different options. Prehospital care systems in Pacific Island countries are under-developed. In Fiji, out-of-hospital care is fragmented with an uncoordinated patchwork of ambulance providers. There is no scope of practice or training requirement for providers and no patient care records. There are no data relating to demand, access, and utilization of ambulance services. In response to a surge of COVID-19 cases in 2021, the Fiji government created a Prehospital Emergency Care Coordination Center (PHECCC) in the capital Suva, which was operational from July-October 2021. Access was via a toll-free number, whereby the public could receive a medical consultation followed by phone advice or dispatch of an ambulance for a home assessment, followed by transportation to hospital, if required. The PHECCC also provided coordination of inter-facility transport and retrieval of the critically ill. The system that was created met many of the prehospital care standards set by emergency care leaders in the region and created the first dataset relating to ambulance demand and utilization. This is the first article to document prehospital system development in the Pacific region.