Most Reverend Philip Naameh, handing over the tricycle ambulances to the health facilities
The Tamale Archdiocesan Development Office (TADO), in collaboration with the Italian Catholic Bishops Conference, has supported some Catholic health institutions with ambulance tricycles to enable them respond to the needs of people seeking emergency healthcare, especially children and pregnant women.
The tricycle ambulances donated to the St. Lucy Catholic Hospital and Catholic Clinic, Salaga, has beds and oxygen machines installed with other health equipments.
The support is under the Promoting Resilient Outcomes in Maternal/Child Health Programming through Technology (PROMPT) for Zero Mortality Project.
The PROMPT project was designed to achieve an overall goal of “Improved academic performance of adolescent girls through reduced menstruation induced anemia and improved access to maternal and child health services for rural women towards the attainment of zero mortality in the selected communities of Northern Ghana as contribution to the attainment of SDG 3.
TADO Project Coordinator, Rev. Father Sebastian Zaato, said the project aims at improving access to emergency health rural transport services for prompt referral of pregnant women for safe delivery in hard-to-reach communities of Northern Ghana.
He noted that tricycle ambulances are meant to augment the health center’s current logistics and improve the delivery of quality health care by sufficiently responding to bottlenecks that contribute to maternal and child mortalities due to delays in the referral process.
He urged the beneficiary facilities to put in place a maintenance plan to help prolong the lifespan of the tricycle ambulances.
The Archbishop, Catholic Archdiocese of Tamale, Most Reverend Philip Naameh, stated that the project will make a significant contribution towards the Tamale Archdiocesan Strategic plan goals on health and will improve the prospects of rural and underserved communities to access basic ambulance service which is very critical in the health delivery process.
“It is our hope that these ambulances will contribute to improving access to timely health services and also reduce maternal and child mortality”.
He appealed to development partners to collaborate with the Catholic Church development agency towards extending impactful interventions to the poor and vulnerable and thanked the Italian Catholic Bishops Conference for financing the project.
Administrator, St. Lucy Catholic Hospital, Reynolds Awuah, thanked TADO and their partners for coming to their aid, adding that the support is timely and that it will go a long way to enhance health care at the various health facilities.