(FILE PHOTO) Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia inspecting a model of the ambulances earlier this year
Health Minister Kwaku Agyeman-Manu has announced the distribution of the 275 ambulances across all constituencies in the country before the end of 2019.
He made the announcement at the Binaba community during a two-day visit by President Akufo-Addo to the Upper East Region.
He assured that government’s promise of each constituency having one ambulance would be fulfilled by the end of 2019.
“The health sector is so lucky that by close of the year, we should have completed distributing close to 275 ambulances to all districts of this country,” Mr. Agyeman-Manu said.
Government had earlier indicated that the ambulances would be ready for distribution by the end of April this year but that the timeline was revised.
The Minister of Special Development Initiatives, Mavis Hawa Koomson, later admitted that the Akufo-Addo administration’s promise of one ambulance per constituency was being held up by procurement challenges.
These ambulances are being funded from the $1 million per constituency President Akufo-Addo pledged in his 2016 general election campaign.
Ghana currently has only 155 ambulances, 100 of which have broken down due to various faults, many of them engine-related.
It is, therefore, envisaged that the ambulances would improve emergency care delivery in the country and salvage the ambulance service which has been faced with inadequate functioning ambulances for a long time.