The Ghanaian leader Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has handed 307 brand new ambulances to the Health ministry amidst pomp and pageantry at the Black Star Square in Accra on Tuesday.
Fitted with advanced life support equipment and tracking devices, the ambulances will be distributed to all the 275 constituencies in the country.
In his short remarks to commission the vehicles, President Akufo-Addo said the ambulances will be managed by the National Ambulance Service and the remaining 32 will be kept at the Service’s headquarters.
“This means that as against the scenario whereby one ambulance served approximately 524,000 people at the end of December 2016, today we have a much-improved ratio of one ambulance serving approximately 84,000 people,” he said.
President Akufo-Addo indicated some weeks ago that 145 new ambulance stations will be created to bring the total to 275 and that this would ensure that the country achieve a one-ambulance-one-constituency profile.
“We promised in the 2016 New Patriotic Party (NPP) manifesto to strengthen the National Ambulance Service and we are doing just that,” President Akufo-Addo said.
He emphasized that the government’s is committed to ensuring the realization of an effective Emergency Medical Service system to help improve Ghana’s emergency response system.
To this end, President Akufo-Addo said he has asked the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori Atta to provide financial clearance for the National Ambulance Service to recruit and train 1,477 emergency medical technicians to man the emergency centre.
In recent months the Ghanaian leader has come under severe bashing from the general public over the prolonged packing of the ambulances while people have been dying as a result of the lack of medical vehicles at some district hospitals.
DAP/as/APA