Access to emergency services an uphill task despite tough laws

This includes pre-hospital care, stabilising the patient, and arranging for referral in cases where the health provider of first call does not have the facilities necessary to stabilise the patient.

Emergency treatment, according to the African Federation for Emergency Medicine, is the provision of initial resuscitation, stabilisation, and treatment to acutely ill and injured patients, and delivery of those patients to the best available definitive care, regardless of ability to pay.