Health

Government not proactive with plans for ambulance release

The government was to officially commission the newly procured ambulances today 6th January 2020 however, a letter dated 31st January and sighted by NewsGhana24 indicates the government has called the commissioning off until 28th January for what it termed technical issues that need to be addressed.

The reasons for which Ghana’s hospitals will have to suffer more delay in the release of these very essential ambulances to help save lives include the following.

The need to train staff and paramedics on the usage of the new ambulances and medical equipment. This is very unfortunate and indicates as a country we are not proactive in planning. When the first batch of these ambulances were brought in, the officials knew that the was the need for training and should have also known the kind of training required.

With this in mind, the government with the Ghana Ambulance Service should have used the time used to wait for the remaining ambulances to train personnel. The training, while it is going on, would have been a valid reason for government to have held on with the release of the ambulances rather than the excuses given by the government.

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The government is failing Ghana’s in this regard and the reason is not valid.

The letter further indicated that there was a need for a state of the art Digitized ICT Dispatch System to take over the current manual system. This Digitized ICT Dispatch System could have also been put in place while the whole nation was waiting for the remaining ambulances to arrive.

To waste time while people die and do not get ambulance services then come out to give this reason is an indication that, Ghana is not proactive and we have failed to think ahead.

In project management there are important milestones with timelines and sub-activities or events must be properly planned and executed to ensure all critical issues are taken care of.

This was not the case for Ghana as far as the ambulances were concerned and we did not have a well-cut out plan and direction for the ambulances.

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Again the need to install tracking devices falls short just like the above. The question is, why wait for all the ambulances to arrive before we start installing?

What prevented us from putting in place procedures and systems to install as and when these ambulances on in Ghana? If we had done that, these excuses will not be necessary.

Service centers could be set whiles the ambulances are in use, the service centers could have been set way back when the first set of ambulances arrived. Ghana is not proactive and this must stop now.

Labeling of the ambulances is one sad reason for the delay. This reason does not hold water. In branding these ambulances, the biggest mistake one will do is to give the contract to one company.

The best alternative is to get a graphic designer to design the branding blueprint. Get a branding company in each region to brand its region’s ambulance. This will reduce time and help speed up the process.