Dr. Hafiz Bin Salih, Upper West Regional Minister,
has disclosed that all the nine government ambulances serving the health needs
of the people in the region are currently grounded.
The regional minister, who described the situation
as sad, said he had contacted the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Ghana
Ambulance Service, Prof. Ahmed N. Zakariah, who assured him that four of the
ambulances would be revived within this month to help manage the situation.
Dr. Bin Salih, who disclosed this during the
Jirapa Municipal edition of Meet The Press initiative, said they were also
waiting for the government to distribute the Mercedes Benz ambulances that were
imported under the ‘one-constituency-one-ambulance’ project.
Florence Ansongmwini, the Jirapa Municipal
Director of Health Services, said four out of six doctors in the Jirapa St.
Joseph Hospital are currently on study leave.
She said even though the two remaining doctors are
hard working, the hospital serves as a referral centre, hence receives overwhelming
number of patients, making it difficult for the two to manage.
This, she disclosed, has resulted in patients
waiting longer hours in queues to be attended to, which further forces some
patients to self-medicate in order to avoid the delays at the hospital.
Despite the challenge, the municipality has not
recorded any maternal death for the past two years; a feat Madam Ansongmwini
said was commendable.
GNA
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