Prof Ahmed Nuhu Zakaria, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the National Ambulance Service (NAS), has challenged the country’s universities to establish emergency medical response systems to mitigate the incidence of avoidable deaths.
He said many people were losing their lives through short illnesses and other avoidable causes due to the lack of effective response system, which was urgently needed to halt the scourge.
Speaking at the launch of an ambulance station at the University of Cape Coast (UCC), he insisted that there could only be an end in sight for the preventable deaths through a robust health care system enabled by a swift response system.
The first ambulance station in a university established through a partnership between UCC and NAS, is to improve access to quality health care delivered by the university’s hospital and Community-Based Health Planning and Services (CHIPS) facilities scattered across some communities in Cape Coast.
The school also received a new ambulance sponsored by the Ministry of Special Development Initiatives to add to its existing two for enhanced operations.
Prof Zakaria indicated that the establishment of the ambulance centre would add up to the network of emergency responses from other agencies and go beyond the school’s community to serve the larger Cape Coast community.
He stated that the Service would partner UCC to wage a war against preventable deaths by training students on basic life support responses through specialised programmes.
“If you look at the number of graduates that you churn out, if each of them establishes this basic life support system in their community, it means in the long term, we should have all our communities receiving training in basic life support.
“When that happens, it means we are all fighting against needless deaths and the number of people dying from short illnesses will definitely be a thing of the past,” he added.
Prof Johnson Nyarko Boampong, the Vice Chancellor of UCC, noted that the university’s hospital was faced with the challenge of inadequate ambulances for emergency cases.
He said the hospital’s two ambulances even though on the road, broke down in the middle of assignments sometimes.
“It is a great joy to have the NAS to partner the University of Cape Coast to provide such services to our clients professionally,” he said.
“It is my fervent hope that this partnership will grow stronger over the coming years and will bring lots of benefits to the NAS, the students and staff of the University and the whole country,” he added.
Dr Evans Ekanem, the Director of the Directorate of University Health Services, UCC, said the university’s 70-bed capacity facility, primarily meant for the school, had become the preferred choice of many people in and around Cape Coast, serving over 300 patients daily and delivering babies of at least 1,000 women every year.
He said the hospital had been accredited by several health bodies including Health Facility Regulatory Agency and the Dental and Medical Council of Ghana, which enabled them to train several health professionals and provide some specialist services.
“All of these are done in the face of real human resource and logistic challenges.
“Because we lack the requisite number of specialists, the hospital must rely on other facilities such as the Cape Coast Teaching Hospital (CCTH) and the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital for referral cases,” he said.
He was, therefore, hopeful that the ambulance station would help to save more lives, “We shall continue to do well and by the grace of God, the university hospital shall continuously be the preferred place for people to visit,” he noted.
Dr Ekanem indicated that as a primary facility, preparations were far advanced in obtaining accreditation to upgrade the hospital to secondary status.