Release 'Onuador' medical vans now – Minority to Akufo-Addo

Ghana’s minority MPs have asked the Akufo-Addo government to immediately release and start utilising some eight Onuador Medical Outreach vans procured by the Mahama administration to assist with healthcare delivery.

The vans procured in 2014 have been left at the premises of the Biomedical Engineering Unit of the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital.

At a press conference on Tuesday, 28 January 2020, the Ranking Member of the Health Committee, Mr Kwabena Mintah Akandoh said: “It is quite pathetic and very disheartening how this government is joking with the health sector of this country.

“We believe that if there is any ministry at all that has to be prioritised, it should be health. The government is, indeed, joking with the health sector.

“These vans were brought into the country six years ago and were to be deployed to the hard-to-reach areas to provide health services to the people of Ghana. Unfortunately, these vans have been parked here and are rotting away.

“Why have these vans been parked? What crime have we committed? So, I believe that, as a matter of urgency, the government must put these vans to use and deploy them to the hinterlands.

“The President and Minister [of Health] must know that we need more than plenty of talk and not leave the vans to rot away. I am sad about the development. The vans are not for decoration, so, the government has no reason to park them”, he said.

The Minority’s press conference coincided with President Akufo-Addo’s official inauguration of some 307 ambulances meant to be delivered to the 275 constituencies to held with emergency health delivery.