The country’s major health centers are battling with an ambulance crisis within their facilities as most of their ambulances surpassed their life span.
Earlier, a local newspaper reported a delay with the renewal of the government’s contract with Riders who are tasked with mobility issues including ambulances within public health facilities.
According to a source, the Banjulinding health center that most of the health post relies on including Yundum, Mandinary, and Kubuneh for referral has been without an ambulance for barely three weeks now.
“We rely on the Serrekunda Sandika health facility’s ambulance for our referrals and that’s not sustainable. If this situation persists, patients will not be left with no choice but to hire their own cars for referral. This can be detrimental to their health as it will be tough to get the necessary priority on the highway to travel easily. Most of the localities rely on Banjulinding for referrals with overwhelming catchment areas. So imagine, that faculty staying for weeks without an ambulance” he asked.
He went on: “Referrals should be timely, especially at this period when no hospital wants to register any death in their facilities. Patients cannot be subjected to such a situation of hiring their cars for referrals. If this current situation persists, that will be the ultimate decision”.
The riders for health are awaiting the health ministry over the renewal of their contracts for the past seven months.
No reasons have been advanced for the delay in the renewal of riders’ contracts but allegedly, the ministry is owing them a huge sum.
According to the information we gathered, the following health centers are without ambulances, Banjulinding, Bakau, and Kafuta leaving Fajikunda Hospital to cover Bundung while Serrekunda is covering Banjulinding.
“As things stance, we have only three ambulances that a functional leaving the overwhelming health centers without any. This is unacceptable and something urgent should be done to timely handle this situation immediately” the source said.