General News of Monday, 2 October 2017
Source: classfmonline.com
2017-10-02
About 35 ambulances catering for 27 million Ghanaians
The National Ambulance Service has raised an alarm that Ghanaians are not safe as they currently have just about 30 to 35 ambulances to cater for 27 million people in the country.
The service said the ambulances are not enough to cater for emergency needs. This comes on the back of an appeal by the service to purchase some 100 new ambulances to augment the existing stock.
In an interview with Class News’ Joshua Quodjo Mensah, Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the National Ambulance Service, Simons Yusif Kewura, said the state of ambulances in the country is nothing to write home about.
While admitting that the current stock is woefully inadequate, he revealed that the ones available are also not in the best of conditions.
“The state of ambulances in this country is nothing to write home about. Some are spoilt, few of them had accidents. We have 65 ambulances with engine breakdowns and have been parked at workshops. We are looking ahead to get money to fix them so that they can come back on the road, but as I’m speaking to you now, averagely, in a day, we run between 30 to 35 ambulances and this is woefully inadequate. About 35 ambulances catering for 27 million Ghanaians, I think we are not safe,” he stated.
Mr Kewura added that the Ghana Ambulance Service needs about 500 to 600 ambulances in order to deliver effectively on their mandate. “We have about 216 districts in this country. Ideally, we need to have at least two ambulances in each district. If we want to serve Ghanaians very well, we will need at least 500 to 600 ambulances. We are looking forward to acquiring 200 to 400 ambulances and with that, we will be able to execute our mandate as an emergency institution,” he said.
