One of the major challenges that confronted our health delivery system was the evacuation of people who are critically ill to the nearest health centres. Until recently, it was common to see taxi cabs in our towns and cities carrying sick people and driving through hectic traffic to a hospital or health centre for medical attention.
In the rural areas, because they do not have access to cars, patients are carried in traditional stretchers and the carriers walk several kilometres to health centres. Sometimes, before they get to the health facility, the patient might have given up the ghost. It was to help address all these challenges that government took the bold steps to import hundreds of ambulances and distributed them throughout the country. In fact, as we put this piece together, all the 275 constituencies in the country have at least one ambulance each, serving the health needs of the local people.
Today, it is common to hear around midnight the siren of some of these ambulances carrying the critically ill to hospitals for prompt medical attention. It is instructive to note that these ambulances are not just vans, but they are well equipped with first aid devices and health personnel.
It was on the basis of this that The Chronicle became alarmed when a video went viral on social media on Tuesday, this week, about an ambulance being loaded with cement bags.
Initially, we could not believe the story, only for the National Ambulance Service (NAS) to confirm that indeed, the said ambulance belongs to their fleet. In a statement released yesterday, the NAS said its investigation has revealed the following:
“The said vehicle with registration number GV 537-20 was one of the Ambulances awaiting the fixing of minor faults by the supplier, before being received and integrated into the National Ambulance Service fleet.
“The incident occurred on or around March 26, 2021 while the said vehicle was in the custody of the suppliers; Service Ghana Auto group Ltd. The said suppliers had caused the Ambulance to be sent to its garage to address a minor fault. The National Ambulance Service had earlier declined to take custody of the vehicle because of the said fault.
“A mechanic of the said garage (Nana Ofosu Gear Box specialist) after the repairs drove the ambulance toward the Mallam-Kasoa-Winneba Road on a test drive and in the process used it for his private gains.”
Though this statement, if its content is true, has exonerated the staff of NAS from any wrongdoing, but The Chronicle thinks that should not be the end of the matter. The mechanic who took the decision to use vehicle to haul cement must be severely punished to serve as deterrent to others, especially the staff of the NAS, who may be contemplating of doing same in future.
These ambulances were procured at a great cost to the Ghanaian tax payer, therefore, for a mechanic to use such a vehicle for loading cement is unfortunate. But whilst condemning this mechanic for what he did, intelligence we are picking indicates that in other parts of the country, some of the ambulances have been turned into Hearse for carrying dead bodies at a fee. This, in our view, is even more serious than what the mechanic did.
In our opinion, it will be wrong for the managers of NAS to sit in Accra and pretend that the vehicles are being used for their intended purpose.
In fact, another intelligence we have picked up indicates that some of the operators of the ambulance demand money before they render services.
We believe NAS management can get to the bottom of all these allegations and address them, if they put their ears on the ground. The ambulances are national assets and should be viewed as such.
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