Donated ambulance
By Septimus Senessie in Koidu
The International Rescue Committee (IRC) has donated a brand new Toyota Land cruiser to the Koidu Government Hospital.
Handing over the keys and registration documents to the Mayor of Koidu City, the health coordinator of IRC, Lavra Millen said that the ambulance which cost about US$42,000 was funded by UKAids through IRC’s reproductive health care programme to support the free health care initiative for lactating mothers, pregnant women and under-five children in the district.
Ms. Millen told her audience that for the free health initiative to succeed in the country, there must be a well-established and effective transportation system that would enhance easy and quick movements to the various referral hospitals of critical and complicated cases of the targeted beneficiaries. She added that the lack of such sensitive components of the initiative would lead to loss of lives of pregnant women and children at the peripheral health units (PHUs) in distant villages of the country.
On their track record in the district, the health coordinator noted that her organisation was also giving medical and financial supports to 49 PHUs in the district, with trainings for it staff and quarterly financial allocation to district health management team (DHMT) to enhance their efficiency in their service delivery. The IRC health coordinator added that they had supported the maternity ward of the Koidu Government Hospital and equipped the only functioning blood bank with constant electricity supply. She admonished them to use the ambulance for its intended purpose in the district.
Receiving the keys and registration documents, the Mayor of the Koidu City, Saa Emerson Lamina thanked IRC and UKAids for sacrificing their "tax payers’ money to support the people of Kono District." He described the donation as a worthy contribution to the government’s free health care initiative and agenda for prosperity, which he said was aiming among other things at reducing maternal and infant mortality rates that still remained a critical challenge for most African leaders.
The mayor assured that since the health ministry was devolved to Koidu City Council, they would provide mechanisms to monitor the proper use of the ambulance in the district.
The transport manager of the district health management team, KombaMomoh said that there were only two functioning ambulances to cover over 84 PHUs in district. He noted that the donation of the ambulance would help to ease the growing challenges of referrer problems in the district. Mr. Momoh described transportation as one of the priorities for the success of the free health care initiative in the district and the country as a whole.
(C) Politico 27/05/14
