Acquire

Case Study: Taxi co-operative on-call syndicate.

Transportation to a health facility from distant villages is a major issue in many parts of the developing world. Even when the woman/family decide they will seek health care, and a health facility is available but at a distance, if transport could not be arranged, then the woman may not be able to avail herself of the benefits of a health facility. Solutions to such a problem include outreach clinics, mobile clinics and provision of an ambulance service – and all such methods are costly and have their drawbacks. For example, there are often case-load and resource issues in setting up outreach clinics where many thinly populated villages are spread over large distances. Ambulance option is costly (to purchase and maintain ambulances, and hire drivers), and requires efficient communication systems (for the public to access the ambulance), and may not be able to cover vast terrains without there being a fleet of ambulances.

Thus, it would appear there is not a great deal of hope for an efficient and reliable, but affordable transportation solution. However, we were made aware of an effective, dependable, affordable, and surprisingly simple, solution that was devised by a local administrative worker in Egypt (while working on a USAID programme) who won awards for this development. This exciting solution was uploaded as in idea to the Ammalife “Idea” acquisition webpage, by Professor Ihab Nashar. We reproduce the Ammalife webpages that contain this idea on the next page.

As pointed out by the Professor Nashar, this elegant system can be (and has been):

1. Effective local solution to the transportation problem
2. Reliable
3. Affordable (in relative terms)
4. Sustainable
5. Supports local economy, and
6. Gets local communities involved in health matters.

An informal survey of colleagues working in the developing world showed us that none were aware of this remarkable solution, although they were keen to implement a system such as the one described below since discovering this. Ammalife aims to capture, package and promote ideas such as this.