After witnessing an individual bleeding on the Durban beachfront, Blessing Nzuza was prompted to develop a potentially life-saving mobile app. “The incident got me thinking that we needed to create a system that allowed people in emergencies to contact ambulances, even when they are not able to place a phone call, ” he said.
Respo links ordinary South Africans with ambulances, regardless if they have medical aid or not.The app enables users to request an ambulance during a medical emergency by simply opening the app and pushing a button. Even people without smartphones are able to access the app’s functions, through a recently added panic button feature.
Once a user activates the emergency button, the team from Respo calls them to establish the nature of their emergency and if necessary, an ambulance is dispatched. If the person does not answer their phone, Respo immediately informs their partner, ER24.
GPS tracking is used to locate users in emergencies and emergency service providers are given essential information about the patient, such as existing medical conditions and their medical aid, should they belong to one. This information is provided by users when they install the app. They also list their emergency contacts, who are alerted in cases of emergency.
To develop the app,Nzuza received a grant worth R487 000 from the Technology Innovation Agency, a government agency that helps develop innovative projects in the natural resources, energy, information communication and technology and advanced manufacturing fields.
Once his app was developed, Nzuza successfully pitched for R1 million in funding from the Small Enterprise Finance Agency (Sefa).“The funding from Sefa gave us the capacity to market the app. We used the money to form a partnership with ER24,”he said.
Nzuza has employed four permanent staff members and 20 temporary agents, whose job it is to respond to incoming emergency alerts.
