Carrying pregnancies and raising kids where an
ambulance is as hardly ever seen as sunset at dawn, particularly for those
living in deprived parts of the Upper East Region, is best described as
flirting with remote danger.
Health authorities in that region feverishly have
been x-raying barriers standing in the way of maternal and infant well-being as
calls to bridge ‘emergency referral divide’ seem to be nearing their peak. Converting
a tricycle into an ambulance where there is none yet, they think, is a bit of an
answer.
The Upper East
Regional Health Directorate has launched what it describes as the “Sustainable
Emergency Referral Care” (SERC). Tricycles, commonly referred to as
‘motorkings’, under this programme will serve as ambulances in deprived communities
where there is none. The initiative, which falls under the Ghana Essential Health
Intervention Programme (GEHIP) with supplementary funds from Comic Relief UK, seeks
to prevent preventable deaths triggered by concrete barricades to emergency
healthcare.
“The emergency
referral care implementation pilot looks at addressing transport and
communication challenges and this is supported by rapid response from health
staff,” said the Regional Director of Health, Dr. John Koku Awoonor-Williams, during
the launch at the directorate where twenty-four carriage tricycles, commonly referred
to as ‘motorkings’, were presented to three districts— Bongo, Builsa North and
Builsa South— for the programme.
“GEHIP first
piloted the initiative in the Soe community of Bongo District in 2012 and
preliminary evaluation showed that the initiative contributed to improving
timely access to emergency care for patients particularly children under five
years and pregnant women who need these services,” the Regional Director
remarked, adding “I strongly hope that when an end evaluation is carried out to
assess the impact of GEHIP, the findings will inform national policy in
adopting some of the interventions including the SERC”.
Although it embraces
all cases deserving of swift attention, many have welcomed the programme as reliable
wheels for reducing child mortality rates and improving maternal health — two
among the Millennium Development Goals to be attained globally by 2015.
For residents in
Bongo, where pregnant women and children in critical conditions are carted on
bicycles and donkey carts through terrible roads to health facilities, there is
no better time than now for this intervention. Madam Margaret Kugre, Supervisor
of the Maternity Ward of the Bongo District Hospital, told Savannahnews: “We [the hospital] have had two cases
in which pregnant women, who had no means of transport, gave birth on the road whilst
walking to this hospital. You can imagine what could have happened to them if
there had been complications on the road.”
All along, emergency
referrals in Bongo are only aided by pickups from sub-district level to the district
level. The hospital’s old only pickup, which is used in carrying the Medical
Superintendent about and in running administrative activities, has been the only
‘ambulance’ for the entire Bongo.
“The impact of not
having an ambulance for the district is negative on the MDGs, particularly four
and five,” said Mr. Tibambuya Cletus Apiu, Administrator of the Bongo District
Hospital. “Although we are achieving some results from our efforts, we think
that the results could have been higher if we had this resource [an ambulance],”
he added.
GEHIP’s
Coordinator, Mrs. Rofina Asuru, told this blogger each of the twenty-four
tricycle-turned-ambulances was procured at about four thousand five hundred
Ghana cedis (Gh¢4,500). Twelve of the vehicles, she said, are allotted to both
Builsa North and Builsa South, whilst the rest will go to Bongo.
“Builsa North
and Builsa South are to share only twelve of the vehicles since the MVP
(Millennium Village Project) is already supporting them with a means for emergency
referrals,” Mrs. Asuru explained.
E.F.
Adeti/Savannahnews
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