The Ghana National Ambulance Service says the Ashanti Region currently has 36 operational ambulances catering for the emergency needs of residents in the region.

The functional vehicles are a remainder of the total fleet of 46 originally disbursed to the region.

Ashanti regional manager of the Service, Paemt Sommik Duut Miilon, outlined the state of emergency response logistics in the region.

“In 2004, we started with just 3 ambulances in the Ashanti region, as we speak now, we have about 46 ambulances stations in Ashanti Region with 9 ambulances not working,” he said in an interview with David Akuetteh on Luv FM.

He attributed the non-functioning ambulances to servicing and maintenance processes as well as aging machinery of the vehicles.

Mr. Miilon disclosed the vehicles ideally should not be used after a maximum of five years as they become difficult to maintain.

“The current ambulances we are using were procured in 2020. Emergency vehicles cannot be used after a number of years. After 5 years, it becomes very difficult to maintain. That is why the percentage of functional ambulances is dropping,” he explained.

The Regional Manager of Ambulance Service also cited road crashes as a major cause of vehicle damage.

“Some nonfunctional vehicles are damaged as a result of accidents. We operate on the road and we have other road users so there are crashes,” he stated.

Despite these challenges, he assured the public that measures are being taken to increase the fleet.

“Management is working to make sure that we receive new fleets. We received some last year but they were not that enough to be able to give us the 100% that we expect to have. With our operations, we expect every district to have an ambulance in the country,” added Mr. Miilon.