TZW
Likewise, the St. Joseph Council Designated Hospital, the host of the clinic, becomes the first health institution to host such service, which will be provided by a helicopter search and rescue company, Kilimanjaro Search and Rescue Company (Kilimanjaro SAR).
Speaking during the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding for the clinic between St. Joseph Hospital and Kilimanjaro SAR, the Kilimanjaro SAR Chief Executive Officer, Ivan Braun said the clinic will transform tourism experience in Tanzania entirely.
“Kilimanjaro SAR will be the first institution to provide medical evacuation services on Mount Kilimanjaro using helicopters and our vision is to make Mount Kilimanjaro the safest tourist destination in Africa,” he said.
According to him, the rescue team of the Kilimanjaro SAR will consist of highly skilled doctors, nurses and paramedics, whom he said were committed in saving lives of mountain climbers.
“We are an upcoming organization with a keen focus on helicopter operations, specializing in search and rescue services starting with Mount Kilimanjaro and Mount Meru, committing ourselves to a five minute response time from the minute we receive a distress call,” he said, adding that this will set a new global market leading response time for civil search and rescue services.
He added, “Our High Altitude Medical Clinic will not only serve to supplement search and rescue efforts, but also bring Moshi and Tanzania on the world map in terms of medical treatment for Acute Mountain Sickness. Speaking during the occasion, the Chief Medical Officer in Charge at the St. Joseph Hospital, Sr. Dr. Urbani Lyimo, thanked the Kilimanjaro SAR for choosing the institution as its centre of its operations. “Your decision to have your centre here is an added experience to our institution, may I take this opportunity to assure you of our full cooperation,” she said.
She said the Catholic Church owned hospital has a bed capacity of 150 patients and that so far serves between 150 and 200 out patients a day, and that it became a council designated hospital in 2009.