NGO gives 13 ambulances
MAZA, a non-governmental organisation (NGO) committed to providing transportation for urgent health care in the rural communities has procured 13 tricycle ambulances worth GH¢104,000 for the Chereponi District in the Northern Region.
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The offer is to help bridge the gap between people trying to access health care on urgent basis and health care providers trying to provide life-saving care in a timely manner.
Ambulances
Speaking at launch in Chereponi to unveil the ambulances, the Chief Executive of MAZA, Dr Nana A.Y. Twum-Danso, said the MAZA ambulances would complement the work of the National Ambulance Service (NAS) by positioning its vehicles at the community level.
She explained that in rural areas, sick people trying to get to hospital faced prohibitive obstacles such as long distances, impassable roads, few motorized vehicles, unreliable transportation services, and lack of money to pay for appropriate transportation.
“This phenomenon is one of the most crucial root causes of the urban-rural disparity in premature deaths in the country, especially for the most vulnerable members of the population”, she stated.
Dr Twum-Danso said with the introduction of the tricycle ambulances, patients in far rural communities would be able to access healthcare at the health posts in the district.
Extension
According to her, many maternal and infants deaths occurred in rural areas as result of unreliable transportation services to take the patients to the hospitals on time.
Dr Twum-Danso who personally funded the project, however, called on charitable organisations to support the initiative to enable her to extend it to other communities.
She also added that apart from the tricycles being used for ambulances purposes, it could also be used to transport people and goods to market centers when there were no emergency cases to demand their services.
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Commendation
The Chereponi District Chief executive, Hajia Mary Nakobu, said most of the maternal and infants mortalities in the district occurred as a result of lack of transportation to get the expectant mothers and infants to health centers timely.
She expressed the hope that the MAZA ambulances would help to improve the health needs of the people in the district particularly those living far away communities from the district capital.
The Chereponi District Health Director, Dr Stephen Dadia commended MAZA for the initiative and said it would contribute greatly to reducing infants and maternal deaths in the district.