The Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, has applauded the National Ambulance Service for efficiently discharging its role in the country’s emergency care system despite existing challenges.

Otumfuo however urged the Service to put in place a maintenance team to handle their fleet to prevent the reoccurrence of the situation where a mechanic used an ambulance to cart cement.

He said this when the management of the service paid a courtesy call on him at the Manhyia Palace during a workshop organized for all the Emergency Medical Technicians in the Ashanti Region.

“You save patients or victims before they get to the main hospitals because if they don’t get the right approach by you, by the time you take the patient to the hospital, the patient would have died just because of a small mistake of not being able to provide even oxygen and first aid or care for them. So we appreciate what you are doing and thank you also from Nkenkansu. I know you are doing well there. I heard so much about your paramedical training. Contract your vehicles to a registered maintenance agency so that the unfortunate incident of a mechanic using your vehicle as a cement towing car will not happen. But l know you are doing such a good service to the people of Ghana, and we have to applaud you for that, and we urge the government to support you wholeheartedly.”

Speaking to Citi News on the sidelines of the workshop, the Chief Executive Officer of the service, Prof. Ahmed Nuhu Zakariah, said they would soon be training more drivers.

“Apart from recruiting direct drivers, this year, we have started training all the paramedics with regard to driving because experience has it that, if you are with only a driver and the driver goes for a case, and he happens to feel unwell moving the vehicle back, it will be a problem. It means that all the crew should be trained on how to drive, so we have started with the new intake, so all the new recruits are undergoing driver training. While planning to recruit more drivers, we have written for financial clearance, and once we get it, more drivers will be recruited,” he added.