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MRI Botswana Launches New Emergency Number
Sunday Standard
by Angela Mdlalani
19 September 2009
MRI Botswana (formerly Med Rescue)clients are, from now on set to access the Mri emergency number from all telephonic service number s for free. This comes after the company launched a new number 992,early this week.
The emergency number changed from 911.
The new number will be accessible through Mascom, Orange Be Mobile.
The General Manger of MRI Botswana Rockie Mmutle, told Sunday Standard that by December 31,the number will give way to the line.
Mmutle said that the company is a brand that carries significant recognition in Botswana in the field of Pre-Hospital Emergency Medical Care.
“The company has earned the trust of the diplomatic corps, corporate clients, medical aid schemes/societies and insurance groups which from the bulk of our clientele.”
He added that the company’s internationals and best practice will continue to be maintained and benchmarked on the South African Standards,`` being the best region and collaboration with international partners”.
Mmutle said that the company has bases in Botswana located in Gaborone, Palapye, Francistown and Maun.
Beulah Emig, the Communications and Marketing Director, said that the change of number will put them in a better position to enable them to interact with their customers.
She, however, lamented the fact that some of their customer are not aware of the service from them.
“The interaction objective is due to result from several market research interventions which that some of our customers, particularly medical aid members who include BOMAID, PULA, BPMAS AND BOTSGO, are not aware that when accessing our ground ambulance service that there is no co-payment needed.”
Customers, she said, do not have to pay a 10% fee to access the ground ambulance service. Emig said that the medical services already subscribe for the customer so there will be no need for them to pay cash.
The Medical Director of MRI, Dr Khumoetsile Mapitse,said that MRI has a king Air 200 air ambulance, which is fully configured and equipped for ICU and critical care transfers. He added that the air ambulance does evacuations from around the region, including Namibia, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and South Africa.
“The road evacuations are carried out by fleet of ambulances and rapid response vehicles,” Mapitse said, adding that the vehicle are configured to the highest standard and do critical care transfers, including transferring a patient on ICU to another facility.
He also said that have experienced problems of space creation due to traffic during evacuation.
“Our roads were built with out emergency lanes, it proves difficult when there is traffic and you have to create a lane in the middle of other lane; some drivers compete with you, “he said.
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