The National Ambulance Service has finally dispatched an EMT driver to man the only ambulance at Asiwa in the Bosome-Freho District of the Ashanti Region.

This follows a Joy News report that highlighted how the absence of an EMT personnel to drive the new ambulance allocated to the district, forced residents in the area to use taxis and motorbikes to transport patients in critical condition.

They say the failure by the assembly to put the ambulance on the road is contributing to preventable deaths in the district.

That situation is about to change for the better after the service deployed an EMT official to the area. This was confirmed to Joy News by the Ashanti Regional Director of the National Ambulance Service, Sommik Duut.

"My CEO had to come in and they have gotten a person outside the region and posted him to the region. We should have a minimum of 3 EMT drivers who will be manning one station because we work 24/7, we don’t close," he said.

"The service is currently running 41 stations in the region with staff number meant to be for 17. This acute shortage of personnel has resulted in the inefficiency of the service in the region.

Mr Duut assured that the service was completing the training of additional personnel to fill the gap.

‘We had a problem with the personnel. With the personnel from the 17 stations we were operating before, we had to use the same number to open 41 stations.

As I talk to you, we have some trainees who are on hospital and ambulance attachment. So we are just working on fast-tracking the whole thing to get them out so that we work on the rest’, he disclosed.