Mobile-Based Medical Emergency Ambulance Scheduling System

Effective and efficient public service delivery like healthcare services are very important in today's society, especially in the rural areas. People in rural areas are expected to have access to public facilities at all times. However, these services are not always available when they are needed. This paper discusses the problems faced by rural areas of Mafikeng in South Africa (SA) when public and basic healthcare facilities like medical ambulance transports are needed during emergency situation. The challenges ranges from poor communication, poor road network and unstructured address to non-arrival of ambulances leading loss of lives that are preventable. This paper designed and implemented a system prototype using mobile application technologies to offer cost-effective services to patients during emergencies. It is intended to reduce long queues in hospitals and long waiting periods for an ambulance via location-based services. By using this application, lives in the rural areas can be made easier and loss of lives prevented by providing timely response from the appropriate healthcare providers during emergencies.