In South Africa it is a common problem that the victim of a medical emergency will get turned away and denied medical attention due to the fact that the medical facility cannot identify him/her and make contact with his/her family or insurance company to get surety of payment for treatment.
The facts are:
- One in every eight trauma patients will receive incorrect medical treatment due to lack of information.
- Wallets and other items which provide emergency responders with key personal information are often stolen at the scene of a crash, making patient identification difficult to impossible.
- Reported cases where lack of medical aid information has resulted in death.