Vice President John Dramani Mahama on Friday announced that government would give meaning to the ambulance decentralisation programme by procuring a minimum of 600 ambulance vehicles in the next two years.

He said: “In the interim 161 of those vehicles would be received by the end of July this year to set the tone for the procurement exercise.”

Vice President Mahama announced this when he presented 50 of the Ambulance vehicles to the Ministry of Health to be distributed to some districts.

The Ambulance service which started with 41 vehicles in 2004, can now boast of more than 100 ambulance vehicles and would by the end of the year acquire a total of 200 for onward distribution to other districts.

Vice President Mahama, said after the procurement of the ambulances, every district would have about three of the vehicles to carry out emergency quality health care in the rural areas.

He said decentralisation of the service was crucial in the face of numerous road accidents and the spread of serious diseases in the rural areas.

The Vice President, said apart from providing the ambulances, government had also trained paramedics to handle all kinds of emergencies that needed their assistance.

Vice President Mahama said, the ambulance service would help government to achieve Millennium Development Goals four, five and six, which are health related.

He gave the assurance that the construction of polyclinics which began in six communities in the Northern Region last year, had been replicated in the Upper West and Brong Ahafo Regions and would soon be extended to all the regions.

Mr Alban Bagbin, Minister of Health, said the trained paramedic technicians would be posted to all the districts to diligently offer assistance to accident and other emergency cases.

He appealed to the staff of the service to take good care of the vehicles to be able to serve more generations.**