FRSC/WORLD BANK: Delivering on pillar five of UN Decade

If you have followed Chidoka’s last days before his exit and if you agree that he made history in his stride at the helm of affairs in the FRSC, one event that startled me and which should be of interest to us as a people is the events of his last day in office. I […]

If you have followed Chidoka’s last days before his exit and if you agree that he made history in his stride at the helm of affairs in the FRSC, one event that startled me and which should be of interest to us as a people is the events of his last day in office. I am not talking about the funfare, the farewell parade, the numerous meetings, nor am I taking about the dinner held at the Transcorp in his honour. I am talking about the World Bank-backed, or should I say financed partnership,between the Federal Road Safety Corps and the National Hospital on skills training as first responders.
The First Responder’s Course is geared towards training personnel, in this instance, FRSC staff, on how to handle emergencies, give first aid, stabilize and resuscitate patients on the spot of a crash, as well as developing appropriate skills for transferring them to the hospital.
The First Responders Course is part of the Safe Corridor Project of the Federal Roads Development Programme funded by the World Bank. In the words of Chidoka, “it builds the capacity of the rescue operators who get to the scenes of road crashes first.”  According to him, there has always been the need to build personnel’s capacity in order to enhance their ability to play their roles of rescue, efficient management and transportation of crash victims to the hospitals, which are critical to the success of the FRSC safer roads campaign. It was in the light of this that the Corps had resolved some years back to build strategic partnership with relevant stakeholders who would support not only the campaign against road carnage, but would key in on how to manage crash victims most efficiently in such a way that crashes do not necessarily lead to death or further damages due to mishandling.
The former Corps Marshal stressed that the Corps would ensure that necessary measures are put in place to ensure that whenever a crash occurs, FRSC men get to the scene most promptly to rescue the victims in a most professional manner to save those that should have died for lack of adequate rescue facilities and trained personnel. No doubt, according to him, the World Bank’s partnership with the Corps over the years has been yielding fruitful outcomes, ranging from safe road corridor project, by which the constructed roads are fitted with relevant road safety components, to the provision of ambulances, patrol vehicles, motorbikes, tow trucks and other equipment such as alcolisers and radar guns to facilitate enforcement and rescue activities along the routes.  As part of the staff capacity building programme of the Bank, it has partnered with the FRSC to organize courses both at local and international levels with great benefit to the staff.  Interventions like these, have no doubt, enhanced the capacity of staff to perform optimally in their different operational, administrative and rescue activities.
The Chairman of the Board of National Hospital, Abuja, Dr. Tony Okam, recalled that the First Responders’ Course is not the first collaboration between the Hospital and FRSC in the march towards safe road use. The FRSC had on May 28th 2014, collaborated with the NHA on a simulation exercise when a helicopter successfully landed on the Hospital’s Trauma Center helipad. As the Chairman elaborated, one hundred FRSC staff would be trained over the next two months in batches of twenty-five, with the training providing baseline information on the anatomy and physiology of the body, essential life support, first aid and trauma life support, enabling the trainees to be able to apply these skills and knowledge as they carry out rescue missions across the country.  Of course, he advocated for the sustenance of the training through funding to enable more FRSC staff benefit from the same training and ultimately build a critical mass of capacity in the Corps. According to him, the trends and challenges of the 21st century comprise of security and presently, Nigeria has to face this challenge like the rest of the world.  There is therefore an increasing need to build capacity for addressing life threatening trauma related injuries.
Perhaps the Acting Chief Medical Director captures it succinctly when he identifies the Marshals and Officers of the Federal Road Safety Corps as first responders to road traffic crashes who must necessarily work closely with hospitals like the National Hospital Abuja. He did not neglect to mention the existing working relationship between the two organizations, which, according to him, dates back to the commencement of clinical activities in the hospital, as crash victims were, and continue, to be rushed by men of the FRSC to the hospital’s A&E section for prompt clinical action.
And perhaps, a parting shot would still be in the words of the Ag. CMD, which encapsulates the wishes of the former Corps Marshal, the Chairman of Board of NHA, and my humble self: “It is my sincere hope that this Trauma Training Course will go round all field officers of the Road Safety Corp(sic) as the experience gained will surely come handy to safe (sic) lives that would have been lost.”
And I say a big “Amen!” to that.