Health Ministry Auditor wants Ghanaians to pay for ambulance service

The best way to make the

According to him, the biggest challenge confronting the Service currently is inadequate funding.

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In recent times, a section of the public has lamented the unavailability of enough ambulances across the country to cater for emergency cases.

Currently, the Emergency Response Service is in a dire situation, with over 29 million citizens being forced to share just 55 functions ambulances.

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Mr. Fiawoyife says the Ambulance Service does not have a reliable stream of funding due to the absence of donor support.

He, therefore, suggested that the commercialisation of the Service could be the way to go.

“So as a nation, if we know that the Ambulance Service that takes care of our emergency situation, one way or the other, we should have a way of financing the ambulance service,” he said at the release of a health and education sector corruption impact assessment.

“It is going to be taken care of by the national health insurance or the outpatient at the point where you are being discharged or even if you die, when your family is coming for the body, they pay for the service.”

Meanwhile, the government has promised to ensure that all 275 constituencies across the country are provided with an ambulance each my mid-2019.

This was announced by the Minister of Special Development Initiatives, Mavis Hawa Koomson last week.

According to her, the provision of the ambulances has so far been held up due to certain procurement challenges.

“It was our intention to even have our ambulances by close of year [2018], but looking at the procurement process, I believe that maybe by the first week in December and somewhere in May or June next year [2019], the ambulances will be in this country,” Mrs. Koomson told the press.

She explained that the procurement of the ambulances requires that the Ministry goes through certain processes before which usually take months to complete.