The Chief Executive Office of the Ghana Ambulance Service, Prof. Nuhu Zakariah Ahmed says\u00a0that\u00a0his outfit sometimes delays in responding to emergency cases in the country because of \u00a0the nation’s bad address system.<\/p>\n
[contextly_sidebar id=”momNno2FrOfbWjj7dCFjePD3LFjmAo9o”]He said though they have over 1,700-trained paramedics and 133 emergency stations across the country, the addressing system hampers their work.<\/p>\n
Prof. Ahmed was speaking on the Citi Breakfast Show<\/strong> on Tuesday in response to numerous complaints about\u00a0inefficiencies in the country’s health delivery system.<\/p>\n “Our response time delays sometimes because of the geographic location because we don\u2019t have the ambulances dotted all over the country. The other reason is that elsewhere they have a real structured first responder system in a form of the Police department or the fire department. It means that the first to respond is the Fire Service or the Police because they have response team everywhere followed by us. With that kind of system, response time is very swift. In our jurisdiction, we don\u2019t have the first responder system so everything depends on the National Ambulance service hence the reason for the delay,” he said.<\/p>\n Prof. Ahmed lamented that though they have the capacity, the idea and the men to work with, the lack of resources is impeding their work adding that\u00a0\u201cwe don\u2019t have enough vehicles because the international ratio to one ambulance to a population is one over 250,000 but Ghana currently we are doing one\u00a0to over a million so we don\u2019t have adequate resources.”<\/p>\n He further called on government to provide them with an \u201cair ambulance system\u201d to enhance their efficiency saying \u201cit\u2019s long overdue.\u201d<\/p>\n He added that in \u201cGhana, we don\u2019t have an air ambulance system. We\u2019ve realized that \u2026 it\u2019s more than a luxury it\u2019s a necessity that we have an air ambulance system. \u00a0If you have an emergency in the country, which needs air evacuation, it becomes a challenge and sometimes by road, the mortality rates are very high.\u201d<\/p>\n The CEO of the Ambulance Service observed that though personnel from the service are not supposed to charge for services rendered during emergency situations, he said some defy the directive and extort monies from innocent victims.<\/p>\n He however warned personnel indulging in such acts and further called on Ghanaians to report culprits for appropriate sanctions.<\/p>\n –<\/p>\n By: Godwin Akweiteh Allotey\/citifmonline.com\/Ghana
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