The Youth in the Upper West Region has donated a fully furnished ambulance to the Upper West Regional Hospital to aid in its service delivery to the people in the region and beyond.
The ambulance was purchased with support from some illustrious sons and daughters of the region including the speaker of Parliament, Rt. Hon, Alban S. K. Bagbin.
Addressing traditional leaders and scores of people of the region at a brief ceremony to hand over the vehicle, Madam Erasung Hadijah Is-haq, the convener of the ambulance initiative, remorsefully and with tears recounted the disappointment the team suffered from “Honourable personalities”.
“… everything was stolen at the port, batteries, oxygen cylinders, radio and all valuables were gone, but interestingly we promised our people an ambulance and an ambulance we must deliver we believed.
"So the team got to work … we contacted the remaining pledges we made and none was available to support".
“Our last hope on our pledge list then gave us the very statement that broke my heart, I quote ‘the project doesn’t excite me again’. Painfully it came from an honourable member when the call dropped I wept and for weeks I was depressed”, she.
Madam Is-haq extended special commendations to the Speaker of Parliament, Mr Alban S. K. Bagbin, Justice Yuoni Kolendi, Alhaji Huudu Mogtari, Volunteer Hours and Resources, and the Upper West Community who made diverse donations to the tune of GH₵155,500.00 to the ambulance project.
“With the ambulance project we raised an amount of GHc155,500.00 from four sources; Upper west Community, GH₵65,000.00; Hon. Alhaji Huudu Mogtari, GH₵10,000.00; Volunteer Hours and Resources, GH₵30,500.00; Rt. Hon. ASK Bagbin, GH₵50,000.00”, she explained.
Madam Is-haq stated that the need for the project arose out of their desire to help avoid preventable deaths resulting from delays in accessing ambulance services by the people.
She expressed appreciation to the team members and the general public for their unflinching support in cash or kind throughout the process of mobilising funds to procure the ambulance.
Mr Alban S. K. Bagbin, the Speaker of Ghana’s Parliament, urged the members of society to contribute their quota to the community and national development as the government plays its part since achieving development is a shared responsibility.
He stressed the need for urgent attention of the government and the general populace to the necessity of pre-hospital emergency services including ambulance services in the country, especially in the rural communities to help meet the emergency health needs of the people.
“The ability to speedily transport members of the community who require urgent medical attention from their location to the nearest health center is a crucial factor that determines survival or death for many of us”, Mr Bagbin stressed.
The Speaker of Parliament, therefore, commended the team for initiating the move to support the hospital with the ambulance and added that it would augment the existing health delivery systems in the region.
Dr. Robert Amesiya, the Medical Director, Upper West Regional Hospital, thanked the Upper West Youth team for the donation to aid the facility.
He assured the people of the prudent use of the ambulance to ensure it served its purpose.
Dr. Amesiya indicated that the inadequate number of ambulances at the facility is affecting their efforts in transporting patients to hospitals outside the region as his outfit did not have the required number of specialists.
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