Emergency Medical Assistance Service of Moldova to receive 168 new ambulances

Chisinau, 4 July /MOLDPRES/ - The park of ambulances of the National Pre-Hospital Emergency Medical Assistance Centre will be renewed with 168 ambulances. The government today approved the signing of an agreement on loan worth 12 million euros between Moldova and the Council of Europe Development Bank, the government’s communication and protocol department has reported.      

Thirty five C-type ambulances (intensive therapy ambulances) and 133 B-type ambulances (first aid ambulances) are to be purchased with the loan. They will be bought based on a tender, under international standards in the sector. As a result of the renewal of ambulances’ park, the Emergency Medical Assistance Service will enhance its intervention capacity and the quality and quickness of medical services provided to patients, including in villages, will be improved.    

Prime Minister Pavel Filip stressed the importance of the project for improving the quality of medical services provided to residents. “These ambulances are meant to improve the medical system, as I have repeatedly spoken about the need to bring the medical services closer to people. This can be achieved when you buy hospitals nearer to them or when we develop the infrastructure and have maybe less hospitals, but better ones, excellence hospitals. And when having the infrastructure and ambulances, we bring people to these hospitals, where they will benefit from qualitative services,” Pavel Filip said.  

To modernize the park of ambulances, the government in 2017 earmarked 51 million lei for buying 69 ambulances. The first ten ones have been already brought to Moldova and the other 59 ones are to be supplied till late July. The ambulances will be distributed to 32 pre-hospital emergency medical points from all Moldova’s regions and the Autonomous Territorial Unit of Gagauzia, where the extent of wear of the ambulances is over 90 per cent.   

The National Pre-Hospital Emergency Medical Assistance Centre provides medical services to those over 3.5 million residents of Moldova free of charge and 24 hours. In 2017, the service provided emergency medical assistance to 870,000 people.