Nigeria’s pre-NEMSAS Ambulances

By Salisu Na’inna Dambatta

The introduction of the National Emergency Medical Services and Ambulance System (NEMSAS) by the Federal Government forced one to wonder about the nature of ambulances used when the first generation hospitals and dispensaries were established in Nigeria.

My search on wether St. Margaret’s Hospital, the first government hospital built in Calabar in 1889, and the older Church Missionary Society Dispensary in Obosi established in 1880, had ambulance services, returned negative.

Without modern ambulances how were patients in need of emergency medical care transported to the few healthcare facilities in colonial and early post-colonial Nigeria?

Records indicate that various methods or vehicles for transportation were used in lieu of ambulances. Patients were carried on the back. A mother will carry her sick child and trek to the hospital; oxen-drawn carts and dugout canoes were used in ferrying patients. Other patients were carried on horse back or donkeys. Wooden stretchers were equally used.

Further inquiries on using ambulances for transporting patients to dispensaries, clinics or hospitals indicate that motorised vehicles were introduced in the few hospitals in the country in the late 1950s, just before independence. The ambulances were mostly for the benefit of British colonial officers, the traditional and economic elite.

Professor of History at the Bayero University, Kano, Tijjani Naniya, recollected that the ambulance serving City Hospital (now Murtala Mohammed Hospital) Kano. was exclusively used by those three classes of people while the regular residents of the city loathed the ambulance.

“In fact, whenever the ambulance comes blaring its siren through the city people ran away, believing that it was heralding death,” he said.

In some of the district headquarters, especially from the mid-1960s, the official District Council Van was occasionally used in transporting patients to the appropriate Dispensary for medical care.

Fast forward to the year 2025 and that is, from the days of trekking to take patients for medical treatment on human backs, to the era of NEMSAS’ sophisticated ambulances.

It is such ambulances that will now be serving Nigerians in medical emergencies regardless of their social and financial standing through the National Emergency Medical Services and Ambulance System (NEMSAS) introduced by the Federal Government in 2022. It is gradually being rolled out in Nigeria, including Kano state.

The assessment for onboarding the Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital (AKTH), Kano, for NEMSAS service delivery to patients was successfully concluded on August 29, 2025.

The Medical Director of the AKTH, Professor Abdurrahman Abba Sheshe said, “the programme was for the benefit of patients. Emergency management is key; the timely availability of ambulances is essential. He described the NEMSAS as an “initiative that will go down to the grassroots.”

Professor Sheshe said that the Hospital has set up a robust emergency team and ensured that everything would be provided at a Call Centre for alerting the emergency team to promptly respond to calls.

The Hospital management informed the MEMSAS assessment team that the Hospital made 625 emergency ambulance trips, including VIP service, in the past two years. All were at zero charge to patients.

The Director and National Programme Manager of NEMSAS, Dr. Sa’idu Ahmed Dambulawa had previously listed criteria for onboarding eligible healthcare entities and ambulances. He explained that the AKTH assessment was successful. He said that the government of Kano state too has met the criteria and some of its hospitals would participate in the system.

A dedicated Emergency Management System administration with a functional NEMSAS implementation Committee are some of the other requirements.

The Director said that NEMSAS will pay for transporting patients to designated hospitals and treatment for 48 hours. Victims of road accidents, gunshot injuries, burns, pregnant women in labour and other forms of emergency cases listed in the NEMSAS manual are eligible for the free ambulance transportation and treatment for 48 hours.

Salisu Na’inna Dambatta is an advocate for healthcare journalism 08106632271.