Mandeville, Manchester — True to the old Jamaican folk/cultural advice to ‘tun yu han’ mek fashion’ the Southern Regional Health Authority (SRHA) recently used innovative means to add two new ambulances to its fleet.

In a bid to save money and time the SRHA bought two Toyota Hiace buses and had them converted.

According to regional director at the SRHA, Michael Bent, the initiative resulted in savings of $7.6 million and a shorter timeline to receive the vehicles.

“Quotations were received from suppliers of ambulances and the cost for one ambulance was $11 million, so to procure two ambulances we would need $22 million, at least. With the exchange rate going higher we can imagine that the cost perhaps would have increased. In addition, it would take a minimum of six months after ordering the ambulances before we would receive them,” Bent said at the handover ceremony at the SRHA Brumalia Road headquarters in Mandeville.

“Here we are today with two brand new 2017 Toyota ambulances procured and customised at a combined cost of $14.4 million…”

He noted that the international specifications required for ambulances were not compromised in the process, and no procurement guidelines were breached.

Operations and maintenance director at the SRHA, Herschel Ismail, told the Jamaica Observer Central that the innovative approach, which was spearheaded by her department, is being done for the first time.

“This initiative to convert buses into ambulances is the first in the Southern Regional Health Authority and I dare say the first in the island,” she said.

The regional director said that the project was funded with fees collected through health insurance cards received from patients.

He urged that the method of payment should be viewed as a way to assist public health care facilities to achieve their development goals despite the no-user-fee policy in the sector.

“I am going to be imploring users of the hospitals, wherever you are…to utilise your health insurance cards when you access services at the hospitals. All our hospitals are equipped with card machines that you can use to swipe your cards. We are not asking users to give us cash because it is no user fee, what we are asking you is to give the cashier, when they ask for the health card… Once we have these health cards we can do much more,” said Bent.

One of the new ambulances was assigned to the Lionel Town Hospital in Clarendon and the other to the Mandeville Regional Hospital.

The SRHA is responsible for all the health care facilities within Manchester, Clarendon and St Elizabeth.