Covid-19: Ambulance Service Cry about Lack of PPEs

Ghana’s National Ambulance Service says it is yet to receive the needed Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for its staff days after it appealed to the authorities at one of the COVID-19 press briefings.

The Service last week made an appeal to the Ministry of Health and the general public to provide its staff with some PPE as parts of efforts to save them from contracting the covid-19 disease.

The Executive Director of the National Ambulance Service, Professor Ahmed Zakariah in an interview with Accra based Citi News said the service is currently relying on the limited number of PPE available to them.

“The sector ministry, especially the Minister always tries as much as possible to let the logistics committee provide us with logistics. It’s not all the time that they are able to get all the numbers needed. But as and when they receive their logistics, they try to also make sure we get some. In such cases, you don’t wait till you’re overwhelmed. It’s better you prepare and make sure that you have adequate supply of every logistic so that you’ll get ready and wait,” he noted.

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Other health workers have since the outbreak, also complained about the lack of protective clothing needed while coming into contact with persons suspected to have the virus.

Nurses and Midwives, for instance, were advised by their mother association, the Ghana Registered Nurses and Midwives Association (GRNMA) to leave isolation units if they are not supplied PPE by the government.

In a release on Friday, March 13, 2020, they said health officials must ensure that protective gears are made available to the nurses and midwives who will be on the frontline working in isolation units in the four designated treatment centres for Coronavirus in Ghana.