Ministry adds 40 new ambulances to fleet
FORTY new ambulances, funded by the National Health Fund at a cost of US$2 million (approx. J$136 million), were yesterday handed over to the Ministry of Health at a ceremony held at the Bustamante Hospital for Children in Kingston.
The ambulances – outfitted Mercedes Sprinter buses – were supplied by Euro Star Motors, the local Mercedes dealer, and come with a three-year service contract from the company.
Minister of Health Horace Dalley said the ambulances will be used during the ICC’s World Cup Cricket and deployed to hospitals across the island.
Head of the Department of Intensive Care at the Bustamante Hospital for Children Dr Lambert Innis said the ambulances were a welcome addition to the ministry’s fleet, and at the same time proposed that special ambulances to transport sick babies also be looked at.
“We might need to transport babies that are some of the times minutes old,” Innis said, adding that an ambulance with equipment such as incubators, would make such a process much easier.
Innis, who works in emergency cardiac care in the Ministry of Health, said the ministry was looking favourably at this proposal.
A second suggestion aimed at improving emergency care, which Innis said was still in the early stages, is the establishment of an emergency management team, which would operate out of the Bustamante Hospital for Children.
Innis said the team would go out to hospitals referring patients, instead of allow those hospitals to take in the patients, which is now the case. He said the reason for this is that medical personnel at some hospitals may not have specialised training in dealing with children.
“We think it’s going to be more efficient and cost- effective,” Innis said.
Meanwhile, Innis, who is also in charge of training drivers of the new ambulances, said training sessions would be conducted every week.
The sessions, which started last week, cover, among other things, resuscitation, drugs required in emergency situations and cardiopulmonary resuscitation, also known as CPR.