Lagos on life support

EMERGENCIES: JUST 100 AMBULANCES SERVICE 20 MILLION PEOPLE >>> Patients face deadly delays as traffic jams, mistrust stall response.

- 

Standing outside a public hospital in Lagos, Nigeria’s biggest city, Michelin Hunsa is still “traumatised” from the two-hour wait it took to get an ambulance for her mother, found unconscious by her neighbours.

Such waits can be deadly and are not unusual in the megacity, where notorious traffic jams snarl commutes and only about 100 ambulances serve a population of more than 20 million.

“We waited far too long,” said Hunsa. Her mother, suffering a cerebral haemorrhage, ultimately survived the ordeal.

Political and business bigwigs regularly bust through traffic in the largest city in west Africa with armed convoys and flashing lights - despite not being in any actual emergency.

Ambulances blast sirens, take shortcuts and speed as fast as they can - but sometimes to no avail.

Part of the problem stems from mistrust among other drivers, who are used to a state of quasi-war on the roads from frustrated commuters trying to get ahead.