The National Ambulance Service (NAS) has inaugurated its 34th Eastern Region station at Anum in the Asuogyaman District, with a call on workers of the service to ensure they take good care of the ambulance to serve Anum and other beneficiary communities in the area.

Other communities that will benefit from the Anum National Ambulance Service due to the distances from such communities to Akosombo include Boso, Tosen, Nanyor, Nkwakubew, Labolabo, Osebeng, Asikuman, Osiabura, Fintey, Frankadua, Apeguso, Aboasa, Kwanyarko and Nnudu among others.

The Anum Ambulance Service is being operated from the Enhanced Community Information Centre built by the Ghana Investment Fund for Electronic Communications (GIFEC) under the Ministry of Communications.

At a ceremony in Anum last Wednesday, the Eastern Regional Manager of the Ghana Ambulance Service, Michael Gaani, who handed over the ambulance to the Social Services Committee Chairman of the Asuogyaman District Assembly, Rev. Daniel Asante, said Anum’s ambulance was the 34th Ambulance Station in the Eastern Region and called on the workers to ensure they maintained the vehicle well so that it could serve the beneficiary communities for a long period.

Currently, the NAS has at least one station in each of Ghana's 261 districts. Approximate figures put the current number of stations at 297.

Maintenance

Mr Gaani said, “Our Ghanaian nature is that we wait till whatever tools or machines we are working with get spoilt to a very critical state before we become conscious to maintain it. In such critical situations, sometimes, either the machine or whatever we want to repair is damaged beyond repairs or we spend so much in repairing it and that is our main challenge as a country.”

He said the ambulance was a community property that every member of Anum and all other beneficiary communities needed to be responsible for, adding: “Every beneficiary community must be a watchdog of the facility.”

The Chairman of the Social Services of the Asuogyaman District Assembly, Rev. Asante, also handed over the ambulance to the Paramount Chief of the Anum Traditional Area, Akusiaku Brempong Kumi Sasraku VIII, who also handed it over to the Senior Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) of the NAS, Arnold Nyomasi, who also doubles as the Head of the Anum Station of the Ambulance Service.

Rev. Asante said between the society and the hospitals or health facilities, the most important personalities were the EMTs and, therefore, the Anum community should care for them to guarantee their stay at Anum and its environs to serve the people in their health care delivery.

The Anum Paramount Chief, Akusiaku Brempong  Kumi Sasraku VIII, expressed his gratitude to those who initiated the ambulance service for his traditional area and pledged his support for its maintenance to last long for the beneficiary communities.

Those who graced the occasion included the Juapong District Manager for ECG, William Ahenkora; the Asuogyaman Fire Officer, D.O. III Dzidepo Doku; the VRA Health Director, Dr Omari Yeboah and the Secretary to the Social Services Committee of the Asuogyaman District Assembly and the Coordinator of the Programme, Frank Asare Ayesu, among others.