Coronavirus: ‘Rambo style’ ambulance pickups are for stubborn patients

The Ghana Health Service has clarified concerns raised by a section of Ghanaians and the Ghana Medical Association, with regards to the militarily branded style of picking up suspected coronavirus patients.

According to Director-General of the Ghana Health Service, Dr Patrick Kumah Aboagye, the supposed ‘Rambo style’ of picking up some persons suspected to be infected with the virus applies only to those who prove stubborn.

He said during the Minister’s press briefing, Thursday, May 7, 2020, that, such persons neither voluntarily give in to health professionals to pick them up in their various residences nor do they avail themselves for pick up.

“The protocol is that you’re informed that this is your status they’ve come to meet you…you may not be able to self-isolate so you are given a place and they come very quietly to pick you. Those you see in the Rambo style approach are those who are evading their isolation…”

The Ghana Medical Association, in an interview, noted with concern that the Rambo style of picking suspected victims up is a major contributor to the high level of stigmatization targeted at infected persons in some communities.

The General Secretary of the GMA, Dr. Titus Beyuo is quoted to have said, “Picking people in a Rambo style is increasing the stigmatization. We should pick people discretely instead of storming their homes and vicinities with ambulances to create the impressions that the person has gotten the virus…we should not portray it. We can go with a normal car or we can call them to invite them to the hospital because the practice of storming there with ambulance puts fear in the people and the country”.

But Dr Patrick Kumah Aboagye said such people give them no other alternative than to hunt for them in such manner. He said they even ignore phone calls from health professionals.

“..Those are either switching off their phones or running away and they’re not allowing them to pick them up. Some of them are picked up in the evening quietly. It is when people are evading that we look at other means in collaboration with the community to see how they can be picked…But if everybody cooperated I don’t think we’ll have a challenge… ”