The 13-member board, the first to be constituted for the service since its establishment, is chaired by a former Chief Executive Officer of the Gas Cylinder Manufacturing Company, Nana Wiafe Ababio.

The other members are representatives of some government establishments.

They were sworn into office in Accra last Tuesday.

Significance

The Minister of Health, Kwaku Agyeman-Manu, who administered the oath, said the government recognised health as a basic right of all people.

He said NAS, whose main objective was to save lives and ensure quality care of patients, had, over the years, chalked up some successes, but there was still room for improvement.

"The NAS has expanded from just seven stations in three regions at its inception in 2004 to 297 stations across the country, covering all 275 constituencies, at the end of 2020.

“It is my expectation that the board will help maintain and improve upon the gains and successes achieved so far," the minister said.

The Chief Director of the ministry, Emma Ofori Agyeman, said the service had been a priority to the ministry, and that the setting up of the board would help the ministry achieve its objective of ensuring better health care for the people.

Assurance

Nana Wiafe Ababio thanked the ministry for the honour done the members of the NAS Board and gave an assurance that the team would live up to expectation.

"The board, under my chairmanship, is not going to micro-manage the NAS but rather play its role as a governing board and provide all the support that will be needed to improve the emergency response system of the service," he said.

He called for the support of the MoH to help the board address the challenges facing the service in its operations.