Ghana Ambulance Service awaits arrival of ambulances after one year of promise
In November 2010, government signed the approval of a loan agreement with KfW Frankfurt AM MAIN of Germany to procure more than 150 ambulances and spare parts for the Ministry of Health. The loan had a contract amount of Euro 10,900,000.00, with Euro 1,500,000.00 contribution coming from the Government of Ghana.
However, a year after the loan agreement, the Executive Director of the Ghana Ambulance Service, Dr Ahmed Zacharia says, the service is yet to receive the vehicles.
Speaking on e.tv Ghana’s Awake, the Executive Director said the lack of vehicles had made it impossible for the service to dispatch the 209 trained emergency medical technicians to their various stations.
Despite the challenges facing the service, Dr Zacharia said it is doing its best to provide emergency medical services to Ghanaians.
He noted that, reflecting on the past when the country initially didn’t have a well established ambulance service, its current state was better despite the various challenges being faced.
He further noted that since 2004, there have been consistent efforts to make the service accessible to every nook and cranny of the country.
Currently, he said there were 24 service stations across the country, with seven pilot ones stationed in the Greater Accra, Ashanti and Western Regions.
He mentioned among other things that one of the serious challenges being faced by the service was the lack of emergency vehicles.
When questioned about how operational the service’s emergency number was, Dr Zacharia said, the number was in operation but was also faced with various challenges.
He said lack of personnel to attend to calls was one of the major challenges. He noted that, the service was trying to apply an advanced medical dispatch system which will enable the medical crew determine the severity of the caller’s need for an ambulance.
Another challenge he noted was the woeful budget allocation given to the service. He said although imbursement to the service was captured by the National Health Insurance Scheme, it was not consistent.
Dr Zacharia further added that the effectiveness of the service could only be achieved with political will. He said the passage of the Ghana Ambulance Agency bill into law was long overdue. He said if the bill was passed, it would control the abuse of sirens and horns by taxis and hearse who had taken advantage of the inadequacies of the service during traffic.
He also called on the public to give way to ambulances during traffic in order to save lives
By: Jasmine Arku, e.tv Ghana
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