Ambulance Service refuses to transport accident victims over cash

The patients were among the 71 mourners involved in a fatal accident Thursday

Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs) with the Ghana National Ambulance Service in Asamankese have reportedly refused to transport accident victims referred on Sunday by the Asamankese Government Hospital to the Eastern Regional Hospital in Koforidua for further treatment over cash.

According to sources, the EMTs are demanding a cash sum of GH¢360 per trip before they would transport the patients—five in all. The families of the victims were, however, unable to afford the sum.

The West Akyem Municipal Assembly intervened, fuelling the ambulance vehicle to allow for the patients to be transported to the Regional Hospital for the needed medical care but the intervention was rejected by Ambulance Technicians who demanded cash instead.

Doctors at the Hospital were worried, sources told Starr News the delay in transporting the patients could endanger their lives.

The patients were among the 71 mourners involved in a fatal accident Thursday, February 21, 2018, which killed eight persons at Asamankese.

The accident occurred when a Rhino Truck conveying the 71 mourners, mostly youth, who were following the corpse of a young man whose body was being transported from the Asamankese Government Hospital morgue to a nearby town, Asuokaw crushed on the road.

At least seven persons including five males and two females died on the spot. The eighth persons died when referred to Eastern Regional Hospital.

The 63 injured persons were admitted at the Asamankese Hospital and stabilized. Some had been discharged Friday Morning.