Who We Are
The Emergency Care Society of Uganda (ECAU) is the national professional body dedicated to strengthening the safety net of Uganda’s health system. We are a multidisciplinary coalition uniting Emergency Medical Technicians and other Prehospital providers, Nurses, Midwives, Physicians, and Surgeons. We move beyond professional silos to function as one team with one goal: ensuring high-quality emergency care is accessible to every Ugandan, regardless of location or ability to pay.
What is Emergency Care?
Emergency care is not a single location; it is a continuum of care. It is an integrated system that must function seamlessly to save lives.
The Scene: It begins in the community with bystander first aid and early recognition of danger.
Transport: It continues with safe, timely transfer by trained professionals in equipped ambulances.
The Facility: It extends into the hospital Emergency Unit for resuscitation and stabilization.
Definitive Care: It concludes with Operative (Surgery) and Critical Care (ICU) interventions for the most severely ill and injured.
We champion this Integrated Emergency, Critical, and Operative (ECO) framework, ensuring that no link in this survival chain is broken.
Why We Exist
In Uganda, millions of preventable deaths and disabilities occur due to time-sensitive conditions—road traffic injuries, obstetric complications, severe infections, and acute non-communicable diseases. These conditions do not wait for appointments. We exist because timeliness is the most essential component of quality; delays in care cost lives. We are here to bridge the gap between the onset of illness and the delivery of life-saving treatment.
What We Do And Our Impact
ECAU acts as the bridge between policy and practice. Our work focuses on four critical areas:
Standardizing Education: We equip the workforce—from lay responders to specialists—with accredited training, including the WHO Basic Emergency Care (BEC) course, ensuring frontline providers have the skills to manage acute conditions.
Advocacy & Policy: We serve as the technical advisors to the Ministry of Health, shaping the National EMS Policy and Strategic Plans to ensure sustainable funding and governance for emergency services.
System Building: We provide technical consultancy to build complete systems, from establishing ambulance standards to designing functional Emergency Units.
Research: We drive a locally relevant research agenda to identify system barriers and generate the evidence needed to improve patient outcomes in Uganda.
