The introduction of the National Emergency Medical Services and Ambulance System (NEMSAS) by the Federal Government prompts questions about the type of ambulances available when the first generation of hospitals and dispensaries were established in Nigeria.
My search on whether 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 of transportation were used in lieu of ambulances. Patients were carried on people’s backs. A mother would carry her sick child and trek to the hospital. Oxen-drawn carts and dugout canoes were used to ferry patients. Others were transported on horseback or donkeys. Wooden stretchers were also common.
Further inquiries into the use of ambulances for transporting patients to dispensaries, clinics, or hospitals indicate that motorized vehicles were introduced in some hospitals in the late 1950s, just before independence. These ambulances were mostly for the benefit of British colonial officers, as well as members of the traditional and economic elite.
Professor Tijjani Naniya, a historian at Bayero University, Kano, recalled that the ambulance serving City Hospital (now Murtala Mohammed Hospital) in Kano was exclusively used by those three classes of people, while the regular residents of the city loathed it.
“In fact, whenever the ambulance came blaring its siren through the city, people ran away, believing that it was heralding death,” he said.
In some district headquarters, especially from the mid-1960s, the official District Council van was occasionally used to transport patients to dispensaries for medical care.
Fast forward to 2025: from the days of trekking with patients on human backs to the era of NEMSAS’ sophisticated ambulances.
It is such ambulances that now serve 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. The programme is gradually being rolled out across Nigeria, including in Kano State.
The assessment for onboarding the Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital (AKTH), Kano, into the NEMSAS service delivery network was successfully concluded on August 29, 2025.
The Medical Director of AKTH, Professor Abdurrahman Abba Sheshe, said the programme was designed for the benefit of patients. “Emergency management is key; the timely availability of ambulances is essential,” he said. He described NEMSAS as an initiative that would reach the grassroots.
Professor Sheshe added that the hospital had set up a robust emergency team and established a Call Centre for promptly alerting the team to respond to emergencies.
The hospital management informed the NEMSAS assessment team that AKTH had made 625 emergency ambulance trips, including VIP services, in the past two years—all at zero cost to patients.
The Director and National Programme Manager of NEMSAS, Dr. Sa’idu Ahmed Dambulawa, had previously listed the criteria for onboarding eligible healthcare facilities and ambulances. He confirmed that AKTH passed the assessment successfully and added that the Kano State Government had also met the criteria, with some of its hospitals expected to participate in the system.
A dedicated Emergency Management System administration with a functional NEMSAS Implementation Committee is among the other requirements.
According to Dr. Dambulawa, NEMSAS will pay for transporting patients to designated hospitals and for treatment lasting up to 48 hours. Victims of road accidents, gunshot injuries, burns, pregnant women in labour, and other emergency cases listed in the NEMSAS manual are eligible for free ambulance transportation and 48 hours of treatment.
Salisu Na’inna Dambatta is an advocate for healthcare journalism. 08106632271
