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The Minority of the Health Committee of Parliament has inspected abandoned mobile clinic vans procured under former President John Mahama’s regime.

Following the inauguration of over 300 ambulances meant for emergency healthcare delivery at all the 27 constituencies across the country by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, the NDC MPs visited Korle-Bu hospital to inspect the abandoned vehicles.

Ranking Member on Parliament's Health Committee, Kwabena Mintah Akandoh has therefore charged the government to immediately deploy the mobile clinic vans.

"These vans were brought into the country six years ago and they were deployed to the 'hard-to-reach' areas to provide services but unfortunately for more than 3 years, these vans have been packed here and it’s rotting away.

"We need them in the hinterlands. We entered one of the vans and the interior was chilled, it means the air conditioner is working, so why are they packed here," he asked.

Contrary to the Minority’s claims, the Deputy Communications Director of the New Patriotic Party, Mame Yaa Aboagye says the vans are not in good shape for use by hospitals.

“...they are not in motorable conditions and have not been motorable since they were grounded.

“The company that supplied these vans to the then administration is untraceable to assist the Health Ministry to repair them and use same...if not why would anybody park these vans if they were in good shape or could be repaired? It stands to reason that the vans were purchased from some wayside vendors who might not still be in business, hence the failure of the Health Ministry to locate them”, she said.

“The NDC is pained by the fulfillment of the One Constituency, One Ambulance promise and seeks to obfuscate that colourful event with a story not fit for the airwaves”, she added.

The President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, on Tuesday, 28th January, 2020, commissioned and presented three hundred and seven (307) new, state-of-the-art ambulances to the National Ambulance Service in fulfillment of his 2016 campaign pledge.

According to President Akufo-Addo, the ambulances are “fitted with advanced life support equipment and tracking devices, to be distributed to 275 constituencies, i.e. 1-Constituency-1-Ambulance, to be managed by the National Ambulance Service, and the remainder of thirty-two (32) ambulances to the headquarters of the Service”.

Presenting the ambulances, at a ceremony at the Independence Square, the President noted that, when he took office in January 2017, the National Ambulance Service had 130 stations, 10 regional control rooms across the country, and only 55 ‘semi-functioning’ ambulances.

“In December 2015, two hundred (200) ambulances were supposedly purchased by the Mahama government, out of which only thirty (30) arrived in the country. As though this was not enough, the thirty (30) were declared “not fit for purpose because they had cardinal defects and did not come with any medical equipment. This was completely unacceptable, and my government was determined to rectify this unhappy state of affairs”, he said.