The pilot model on pre-hospital care ­– which was launched in early 2023 ­– operates on a 10 km stretch of the Dhaka - Chattogram national highway in central Bangladesh.

The initiative is one of 44 UN Road Safety Fund-financed projects worldwide and was led by the WHO in collaboration with the Directorate General Health Services (DGHS) of Bangladesh.

A group of 50 volunteers from the nearby community including drivers, shopkeepers, students, homemakers and police officers received training on pre-hospital care and psychological first aid at the crash site. The volunteers were also provided with ID cards, vests, first aid boxes and stretchers.

Mohammad Abdul Hye, a volunteer first responder trained under the initiative, noted, “having undergone the training, we now reach people injured in road crashes, rescue them from the crash site, and provide first aid. The local people are very happy that we do this service.”

A five-digit 24/7 emergency call number (16465) with a dedicated call centre was linked to the pilot in the Munshiganj District to alert trained volunteers and rescuers to manage victims at crash sites and transport them safely to nearby primary health care facilities.

After four months in operation, by mid-2023, the call center had received close to 30 emergency calls. In over three-quarters of cases, first responders arrived at the crash scene within five minutes to provide emergency first aid. Over 50% of crash victims were then able to reach healthcare facilities within 20 minutes to aid their recovery.

Together with the pilot, the project supported a strategy and costed action plan on post-crash response for policymakers. It also worked to develop protocols and training manuals on post-crash care for facility managers, first responder volunteers, transporters and primary health care providers. In addition, a technical committee was set up by the DGHS with representatives from the Fire service, Bangladesh police, Roads and Highways, among other agencies.

“We hope this initiative will be able to demonstrate a model of post-crash response with multi-stakeholder involvement. The major challenge is to scale up the model and make it sustainable and we look forward to continued support from partners,” stated Professor Mohammad Robed Amin, Director, DGHS, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare of Bangladesh.

The Government has set out a roadmap for faster, effective post-crash response with plans to scale up the pilot to further reduce road crash-related deaths and disabilities nationwide.

Read more about the project here.

View a video detailing the results here.

Watch the First Responders in Action here.

Find out more about the #moments2live4 Campaign here.