Iran, Germany to collaborate on disaster, accident management

Iranian Emergency Medical Services Organization and German Bjِrn Steiger Foundation have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on disaster and accident management, AVA Diplomatic reports.

The MOU was signed in a meeting attended by Pir Hossein Kulivand, the director of the Iranian Emergency Medical Services; Pierre-Enric Steiger, the president of the German Bjِrn Steiger Foundation; and Michael Klor-Berchtold, the German ambassador to Iran, on Monday.

The Bjِrn Steiger Foundation is a charity which assists in providing funding for emergency services, and rescue organizations. The MOU proposed plans for integration of all emergency and rescue centers in Iran and setting up a unified emergency call center, running support programs, establishing communication networks between all centers, managing disasters and accidents in pre-hospital and in-hospital stages, providing emergency staff with training programs and constructing training centers for specific areas in the country.

Designing a trauma network and trauma registration center for Iranian hospitals with drawing on German successful models in order to improve emergency care and enhance specialized medical knowledge are among other areas of collaboration between the two organizations.

According to the MOU, Iran and Germany will also set up a joint research-training center for providing help in emergencies and crises, risk management of accidents and disasters as well as promotion of medical emergency care services.

In June, director of Emergency Social Services Organization Reza Ja’fari announced some 70 new centers for emergency social services would be launched and developed nationwide by the end of the current Iranian calendar year (March 20, 2019).

Currently, there are 17 centers providing the citizens with emergency social services in Tehran.