Buchanan City, Grand Bassa County – Residents of the port city of Buchanan have taken a sigh of relief after the Ministry of Health assigned a new ambulance to the Liberian Government Hospital.
Report By: Alexander Musa, Jr. , LMD Responsible Health Reporting Fellow
The hospital, which is the major public referral health facility in the county, has been without a functional ambulance for most of this year.
So, when news of the new ambulance spread in the city, several residents expressed joy, hoping that they will now make emergency calls for ambulance services.
“I’m too happy to hear that our hospital has new ambulance, at least we the poor people who don’t have money can depend on it in case of any emergency issue,” says Hannah Peters, a mother of a nine month old baby.
Hannah recalls that it was frustrating when her daughter was sick on the night of November 5 and there was no ambulance to take her child to the hospital, so they had to use a motorbike taxi.
“Now that we have gotten new ambulance, I’m happy for us the poor people as we depend on the hospital for our health needs especially to get our sick brothers and sisters from the districts to the hospital,” Hannah added.
For his part, Yekeson Kweh whose father was hospitalized at the hospital for a week and needed to be transferred but there was no available ambulance added, “I’m glad to hear that the hospital has new ambulance”.
“I’m using this medium to appeal to the government to have the Liberia Government Hospital medically equipped, because the government hospital is where the ordinary people who cannot afford can go for treatment,” he said.
Making the disclosure about the arrival of the new ambulance, Dr. Abraham Jawara, Medical Director of the hospital, thanked the government for “listening to the cry of our people especially in these times of COVID-19.”
“Let me clearly say that It was actually a though time for us managing with old ambulance, sometime it really used to break my heart when people are calling for health intervention and the ambulance is packed in the garage,” Dr. Jawara said.
He said since the arrival of the new ambulance, several interventions have been made, disclosing that several patients have been transported from other parts of the county to the hospital, while others have been transferred from the hospital to the John F. Kennedy Hospital in Monrovia for advanced treatment.
Dr. Jawara explained that when the hospital was out of ambulance people used commercial and private vehicles to transport their sick family members to the health facility while relatives of patients who needed referral did the same..
For his part, Dr. Sylvester Wheh, the County Health Officer, said the health team is also making “frantic effort” to increase the number of ambulance to two, something he said will make service more efficient and timely for many communities.