About 80 ambulance stations ready to augment operations of NAS – Prof. Zakaria

Chief Executive Officer of the National Ambulance Service (NAS), Professor Ahmed Nuhu Zakaria, says about 80 ambulance stations are currently ready to augment its operations of providing emergency health care services across the country.

According to him, stations for the existing ambulances are also ready excluding ones for the newly created constituencies.

“We have some stations ready and for all the old 130 ambulances stations, they are ready and out of the new 145, about 80 of them are ready so with those two categories we don’t have any problems. The problem that we’re currently handling is the situation where we have the newly created constituencies that are not yet ready. They’re a bit behind in the establishment of their new stations but are also working to make sure to get their infrastructure ready for the ambulance stations.”

Professor Zakaria speaking on CitiFM’s EyeWitness on Tuesday explained that in the interim, there will be two arrangements as to where the new ambulances will be parked in constituencies that don’t yet have stations.

“If an existing ambulance station is nearby, it will operate from there and if there’s a fire service station or hospital within the constituency, it will also operate from there so obviously we’re going to use existing stations,” he explained.

Adding that; “It will not be at a party office or someone’s home,”

Professor Zakaria indicated that to avoid the occurrence of the new ambulances becoming a ‘white elephant’, a support mechanism by the Ministry of Special Development Initiatives along with the Ministry of Finance has been instituted to sustain the funding of the operations of the National Ambulance Service.

President Nana Akufo-Addo on Tuesday commissioned and distributed some 307 ambulances to all 275 constituencies procured as part of a campaign promise to improve emergency healthcare delivery in Ghana.

The President is his speech said a National Ambulance and Service Bill which identifies the funding sources of the National Ambulance Service (NAS) was being worked on and will soon be forwarded to Cabinet for consideration.