In a letter to the Presidency, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Service, Dr Ahmed N. Zachariah, detail five reasons the commissioning should be delayed.
The National Ambulance Service wants President Nana Akufo-Addo to delay the commissioning and distribution of some 307 ambulances across the country.
Over 40 ambulances are currently parked at the State House in Accra
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The reasons cited in the 31st December letter by the Service include a lack of training for staff and paramedics on the use of the ambulances and medical equipment.
Dr Zacharian said in his letter that the manufacturers and suppliers of the ambulances were supposed to provide user training for the ambulances and medical equipment onboard.
However, this training could not take place as scheduled by the manufacturers because they could not travel to the country before the end of the year due to the holidays season, the letter stated in part.
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He said the Service had scheduled another date for the manufacturer to provide the training in reference.
The new dates scheduled for the training area in the weeks of the 13th and 20th of January 2020.
Another reason the National Ambulance Service cited for the president to delay the commissioning of the ambulances is to establish a “state-of-the-art digitized ICT Dispatch system” which will allow the routing of calls through a computer system which will automatically generate the digital address location of the caller to enable control centre easily determine the nearest ambulance to dispatch.
The later also noted that tracking devices which are being installed in the ambulances to check abuse of their usage are still ongoing and will be completed in the third week of January hence the need to wait for that process to be completed.
The other reasons contained in the letter are the delay in the completion of the Service Centres and the Labelling of the Ambulances, stating that both process will be completed in the third week of January.
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"Since all the above issues are being addressed before the commissioning of the ambulances to ensure an efficient and effective emergency response, we strongly recommend that the Commissioning is postponed to the 28th of January 2020 by which time all these issues would have been resolved," the letter recommended.
