The Greater Regional Regional Administrator of the National Ambulance Service, Daniel Asare, has appealed to the government to immediately provide financial clearance for the recruitment of personnel into the Paramedic and Emergency Care Training School.
He noted that this has become necessary for authorities to increase the service’s staff strength and improve emergency response nationwide.
Speaking during the “Walk Aboard” event, part of the Emergency Medical Technicians (EMT) and Paramedic Week celebration, Mr Asare indicated that the current number of professionals is limited.
He also called on authorities to provide the service with new ambulances, noting that many of the current fleet are aged and in poor condition.
“We need new ambulances to increase our fleet of vehicles to meet the country’s population. Some of the ambulances have suffered wear and tear, and several of them are also at a workshop. In the Greater Accra region, out of a population of over 5.2 million, only 42 ambulances are serving the entire population, so there is a deficit. We need over 100 ambulances to serve the population. We will also need office accommodation to enable our EMTs to work. We need more EMTs. We have about 3,500 EMTs, but we need more hands. So we are appealing to the government to give us the financial clearance so we can recruit more hands.”
Mr Asare further cautioned the general public against attacking ambulance personnel during emergency operations. He described such acts as unpatriotic and dangerous to the delivery of critical health services.
He also warned against prank calls to the emergency service, which he said waste valuable time and resources and delay genuine emergency responses.
In addition, Mr Asare urged the public to remain vigilant and watch out for scammers posing as recruitment agents for the National Ambulance Service.
He stressed that recruitment into the service follows official procedures and is not handled by individuals or private entities.
“The Ambulance Service is not recruiting, and so we admonish the public to remain vigilant and not allow scammers to take advantage of them. If we get the financial clearance to recruit, we will publish that on our website and in the national newspapers, the Daily Graphic and Ghanaian Times Newspaper.”
By: Rainbowradioonline.com/Ghana
