STANDARDIZED ICT EQUIPMENT IN EMERGENCY VEHICLES IN LAGOS NIGERIA (MANAGEMENT PROJECT TOPICS AND MATERIALS)
ABSTRACT
The rapid growth of population in Lagos, increasing urbanization and industrialization has led to increase in road traffic, industrial accidents and medical emergencies. Lagos state gov-ernment wants to initiate an ICS (Incident Command System) project which will ensure effi-cient and well-coordinated rescue operations in the region.
The primary objective of the Government project is to provide a solution to the loss of lives and properties due to the late response of the emergency services which include police, am-bulance and firefighter. This can be achieved by minimizing the time between an emergency call and the arrival of rescue services on the scene and to create good and functioning com-munications between all rescue services in Lagos state Nigeria.
The purpose of this research work is to study the standard of ICT system use in emergency vehicles in Europe. The aim is to provide useful information and recommendations to the on-going project based on the findings.
This thesis has been done as part of the incident command system project in Lagos, and it focus more on recommending better communication within the onsite personnel and emer-gency operation center. It clearly explained the practical steps to establish good coordination and communication among the rescue service provider. It also recommends the ICT equip-ment that has to be installed in emergency service vehicle for better communication and op-eration.
Keywords:
police, ambulance, fire fighter, rescue services, communications, Lagos, road traf-fic, industrial accidents, medical emergencies, Incident Command System, Emergency opera-tion centre, coordination, ICT equipment.
1Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Introduction
Having contacted The Infostrides, the company where I did my internship, I got permission to write my thesis on part of an on-going project. My part of the project is to recommend how to standardize the ICT equipment in emergency vehicles. The company is one of the three par-ticipants in this project. The project is one of the many projects currently being undertaken by the Lagos State Government.
Lagos state is the most populous city in Nigeria with the population of 17.5 million as at 2006 according to the Lagos State Government (based on the parallel count conducted by the state during the National Census) (Nigeria Information Guide. 2004).
The rapid growth of population in Lagos, increasing urbanization and industrialization as led to increase in road traffic, industrial accidents and medical emergencies. Therefore, Lagos state government established pre-hospital care which is called Lagos State Ambulance Service (LASAMBUS) in March 2001 to further strengthen and improve the pre-existing Lagos State Emergency Medical Service (LASEMS).
Despite the effort of the Lagos State Ministry of Health to improve and reduce the time of responding to an emergency situation, there are still some major obstacles. There is no cen-tral emergency line that connects all the various emergency services. Each emergency service has its unique dial code. Therefore, the residents are often confused by the differences be-tween the emergency number of ambulance service from police or fire brigade.
This slow response time coupled with the confusion that most victims faced when deciding the number to call, are the main difficulties that the State Government is interested in solv-ing through the implementation of this project.
