Ministry of Health to procure more ambulances

Accra, Nov. 9, GNA - Plans are far advanced to procure 355 new ambulances to enhance the scanty fleet of the National Ambulance System (NAS) in the country, Dr Benjamin Kunbuor, Minister of Health, said in Accra on Tuesday.

To start with, there is a document before Parliament for the approval of 10 million Euro-funds to purchase these new ambulances. Taking his turn at the regular Meet-the-Press series, the Minister of Health said currently, NAS had only 24 fully functioning ambulance stations serving the entire country and government was planning to scale up and expand the service to cover all the districts. He was accompanied by all the directors and heads of departments under the Ministry, the Director-General of Ghana Health Service and the Deputy Minister of Health.

Dr Kunbuor said work of the NAS had been recognised by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and had been captured in its success story book entitled "Strengthening care for the injured: Success stories and lessons learnt around the world".

Under the NAS, 400 emergency medical technicians are being trained to enrich the staff strength.

Dr Kunbour commenting on eradicating malaria, said it was not enough to spend about 85 per cent of Ministry's budget on insecticide treated nets and indoor residual spraying but "We now need innovative ways of tackling interventions".

He noted that the Ministry in collaboration with the Cuban medical team had started "larviciding" in some parts of the country and called for the need to improve the drug supply, its availability and improve case management.

On HIV and AIDS, the Health Minister said though the prevalence rate was 2.9 per cent, there was the need to focus more and spend more resources on fighting stigmatisation and scaling up antiretroviral drugs for persons living with the virus.

Dr Kunbuor said Guinea worm, which was nearly eradicated had recorded eight cases from January to June this year, but expressed the worry about the current situation in Niger, which could easily be transported to Ghana to take us back, "making our dream of totally eradicating Guinea worm not to be a reality".

He commended health workers in the Upper West, Upper East and Northern Regions where Guinea worm was prevalent for their tireless efforts and called for intensification of interventions. Dr Kunbuor reiterated the fact that the one time premium payment under the National Health Insurance Scheme was feasible and government was committed to its implementation.

Dr Kunbuor expressed concern about water shortage that had hit health institutions making work difficult for health workers. He said the problem of providing basic water for health institutions had been in existence for the past 15 years and it was time to have it solved.

"It is our aim that every health facility should get at least a borehole to serve the water needs of the people," Dr Kunbuor said. The Health Minster, expressed worry about maternal and child mortalities in the country and said it was unacceptable for a woman to die when giving birth to a child or children. Dr Kunbuor said the Ministry would do all it could to ensure the reduction of maternal mortality rate from the current 350 deaths per 100,000 live births to zero.

He said the Ministry would as from next year provide incentives for health personnel, who would work in the rural and deprived areas, bridge the equity gaps in accessing health care, improve governance, efficiency and effectiveness of health service delivery, expand access to quality maternal health, neonatal, child, and adolescent health care. Other areas to be addressed would be human resource, strengthening institutional care, prevention and control of communicable and non-communicable diseases.

"The success of the health sector depends on the collective efforts of all of us and therefore the need to stay together and attain all our goals," Dr Kunbuor said. 9 Nov. 10

Captions, Minister of Health, Dr Benjamin Kunbuor on Tuesday addressed Meet-the-Press in Accra. Picture 882,883,890 shows the Sector Minister addressing the Press. Looking on is his deputy, Mr Rojo Mettle-Nunoo. Picture 897,901 shows a section of media personnel. Picture 902 shows the Sector Minister (right) addressing the media.