All 275 constituencies in the country will soon receive an ambulance to facilitate a quality health delivery system.
The ambulances procured by the government are set to arrive in the country by the end of April 2019.
Currently, there are less than 100 functional ambulances operating in some parts of the country.
The Director-General of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Dr Anthony Nsiah-Asare, made the information known to the Daily Graphic on Saturday, February 16 2019.
Although he did not reveal the total cost of the vehicles, he said the vehicles were being funded from the $1 million per constituency the President pledged in his campaign in the run-up to the 2016 general election.
Dr Nsiah-Asare said a team of experts had already assessed the quality of the ambulances and certified them as being consistent with required specifications.
He remarked that the decision to purchase the specialized vehicles by the government formed part of a grand effort to transform the health sector to facilitate effective delivery of health care in the country.
For more than four years now some health facilities have been operating without ambulances.
Most of the ambulances acquired in the past have either broken down or cannot be used because they are not fit for purpose.
The situation has forced many people to resort to the use of either commercial or private vehicles as ambulances to convey injured or sick persons to hospitals during emergency.
Dr Nsiah-Asare who described the situation as unfortunate noted that as part of the government’s plan to transform the health delivery service in the country, the new fleet will start a new phase in the health sector.
He said the GHS would make sure that beneficiary health centres drew up comprehensive maintenance plans to ensure the durability of the ambulances.
Ghana | Atinkaonline.com | Porcia Oforiwaa Ofori
