Ambulance 'Uber' at heart of dusitD2 hotel siege rescueJust minutes after militants attacked a luxury hotel complex in Nairobi last month, the first ambulances roared up to collect wounded survivors.Speedy medical help is taken for granted in the West, but many developing nations do not have centralised emergency command. This time, the response was far better, partly thanks to Flare, a new ride-hailing app whose ambulances were first to the dusitD2 hotel and office complex hit by Somalia’s al Shabaab. But at the hotel complex, ambulances scrambled by Flare - run by the Rescue.co Company - arrived quickly after panicked calls from subscribers who had paid the 2,400 shillings ($24) annual fee. The Flare app works like ride-hailing and food-delivery services and now has tens of thousands of subscribers and 500 ambulances across Kenya. Dolkart said it hopes to expand, both around the region and into fire and security services - building on its experience at dusitD2.

Source: Standard Digital February 04, 2019 09:00 UTC