Country/Region:
Libya
Situation:
COVID-19 Positive Employee with Symptoms in a
deteriorating condition within a resource poor environment
Client:
Insurance client
Operational Requirement:
Evacuation of COVID-19 Positive Patient to Country of
Residence
The NGS Operations Team was approached by an insurance broker for assistance with the evacuation of one of their clients, a 51-year old male patient with confirmed, deteriorating COVID-19 and a known history of hypertensions and obesity, who was located in Benghazi, Libya. The patient was complaining of fever for several days, a worsening cough, shortness of breath and a loss of taste and smell. The incumbent provider had attempted an evacuation within the days prior, however, due to various operational issues with visas and customs and immigration regulations, their attempts had unfortunately failed.
The NGS Operations Team immediately got a better picture of the patients’ condition by arranging for a telemedicine consultation with a trusted partner. The consultation confirmed what was suspected, that due to the patients pre-existing conditions and current state of health, an urgent evacuation was required to his home country for a higher level of care than was available in Libya at the time.
A detailed data capture of the operational issues and finite understanding of the international travel regulations and the changing impact of Covid allowed us to target an air ambulance provider with known COVID-19 Transport Capabilities. We were quickly able to confirm that they had both the capability and availability to safely transport the patient. Our advanced level of data capture allowed us to effectively navigate around the operational issues that had prevented the previous evacuation attempt and close liaison with our providers gained the clearances for customs and immigration to the patients’ country of residence.
The Air Ambulance provider was activated and the communications process with the necessary customs and immigration and port health authorities was initiated. The NGS Operations Team, with assistance from the Air Ambulance Provider, pre-existing Diplomatic contacts and the client were able to obtain the necessary clearances to allow the evacuation to proceed.
The patient was evacuated in a portable containment unit, thereby guaranteeing the safety of the medical and flight crew performing the evacuation, and admission was arranged in a Tertiary Care facility in Greece through the NGS Medical Provider Network.
Telemedicine Capabilities
COVID-19 Capable Air Ambulance
NGS Medical and Diplomatic Networks
The NGS Operations team is supported by numerous specialist operational departments that organically understand the operational complexities of challenging situations. We successfully performed this urgent medical evacuation with multi-layered internal coordination from the NGS Operations Team, targeted support from a trusted Air Ambulance provider with a COVID-19 capable air ambulance and an existing network of contacts within diplomatic services which, once knitted together, facilitated an evacuation that appeared to be unable to go ahead after the work done by an incumbent assistance provider.