Accra, March 3, GNA - The Ministry of Health would procure new ambulances to augment the fleet of ambulances in the system. The target is to ensure that every district in the country has an ambulance station by December 2010. Mr Kojo Mettle-Nunoo, Deputy Minister of Health, said this when he answered a question tabled by Mrs Elizabeth Sackey, Member for Okaikei North, who wanted to know when Achimota Hospital would be given an ambulance.

Mr Mettle-Nunoo said the current policy of the Ministry was that all ambulances would be managed by the National Ambulance Service and that no individual health institution would operate an ambulance. He said in line with this policy, the institutional ambulances were to be absorbed by the National Ambulance Service, adding that the National Ambulance Service was being resourced to open more ambulance stations to cover the entire country.

Currently, there were six ambulance stations in the Greater Accra Region, these are; Amasaman; Weija; Accra City; Aiport; Tema and Ada. These would be increased to 12 stations by the end of 2010. Mr Mettle-Nunoo said the Achimota Hospital could fall on the nearest ambulance station anytime the need arose and noted that there were private ambulances in the system and hospitals without ambulances could make arrangements with them for their assistance in time of need. 3 March 10.