Emergency operations centre

Netcare 911’s 24-hour national emergency operation centre (EOC) is the nerve centre of our business. Based at our head office in Midrand, Gauteng, the EOC provides a single point of access to the full range of pre-hospital medical assistance services offered by Netcare 911 as well as to the other healthcare services offered by the Netcare Group, including its extensive network of Netcare hospitals in South Africa.

This seamless service delivery to the South African public, medical scheme members, corporate clients, South Africans travelling abroad and visitors to South Africa and Africa as well as to people living on the African continent and rim countries, is achieved through a close working relationship between client services, jet air ambulance and helicopter emergency medical services, a global network of associated service providers and Netcare’s in-hospital case managers.

The EOC receives an average of 55 000 national and international calls per month. These calls are for emergency medical evacuations either by road or air, inter-hospital transfers, medical advice offered by registered nurses through Netcare 911’s Health-on-Line service and general enquiries. An average of 12 000 cases are processed and provided with assistance monthly.

Technology

The EOC utilises cutting-edge location and dispatch technology in order to:

rapidly identify a patient’s location by populating the user’s GPS coordinates;
automatically selecting the 15 emergency vehicles nearest to the scene of the incident or accident;
remotely route the ambulance and/or rapid response vehicle to the scene through a personal navigation device; and
speed up call management through the use of voiceless communication.

Cutting-edge location and dispatch technology enables us to optimise our response time

Our services include:

Ambulance and rapid response vehicles

Netcare 911 manages one of the largest fleets of private ambulances and rapid response vehicles in South Africa. The EOC manages this national footprint of resources to ensure that the right resource is dispatched to the right patient at the right time, ensuring a speedy response in any medical emergency.

Other core competencies of the EOC are the timeous and efficient management of primary patient referrals, transportation and inter-facility transfers.

Inter-facility patient transfers

Registered nursing staff members are also responsible for the effective case management of inter-facility patient transfers.

Critical care operations

This 24-hour dedicated division coordinates all road and air intensive care (ICU) patient management and transportation.

Due to the time sensitive nature and extensive spectrum of highly complex cases, our critical care operations are supported by registered nurses, emergency care technicians (ECTs) and on-call paramedics.

Aeromedical operations

Jet air and helicopter air ambulance emergency medical services

Netcare 911 leads the way in technological development for emergency call taking and dispatching of resources in sub-Saharan Africa. The aeromedical division has two dedicated stations in the EOC and acts as a central point for all emergency services involving flight operations.

The aeromedical operations utilise the skills of trained flight coordinators to manage any pre-hospital emergency within sub-Saharan Africa and inter-facility transfers from sub-Saharan Africa to South Africa. It also coordinates the movement of two dedicated air ambulance helicopters which operate 24 hours a day in Gauteng, and ensures an end-to-end solution for critically injured or ill patients anywhere in South Africa.

Health-on-Line

Registered nurses working in our EOC are responsible for telephonic medical information and advisory services related to emergency and non-emergency cases, as well as medical scheme member education.

Customer services desk

The EOC operates a dedicated customer services desk to assist with all enquiries regarding our services, queries and complaints resolution. Our customer services team utilises an integrated user management system to record and manage all enquiries, queries and complaints.