By Ragan M. Conteh

Lawmakers in Sierra Leone have urged NEMS to fix up the faulty ambulances in the hospitals.

The opposition Chief Whip disclosed that most of the government ambulances are being sold among officials responsible to manage the said ambulances.

“Whenever these vehicles have even battery problems or minor issues they ended up selling these vehicles among themselves. They don’t amend them.”

Most of the health officials have private hospitals and the vehicles sold to them are in working good conditions than those in government hospitals.”

Hon. Abdul Karim Kamara made the disclosure at the Administrative Building in Parliament during an hearing conducted with management of the National Emergency Medical Service  (NEMS).

According to Hon. Karim Kamara, the issue of scarcity or lack of adequate ambulances has become the issue of the day, adding that there are many districts and communities that are still suffering for the lack of ambulance services.

He cited that in Kambia some health facility do not enjoy any ambulance service, a development that he frowned at in its entirety.

Hon. Kamara therefore urged the officials from NEMS to provide with the Parliamentary Committee on Health the status of the ambulances and states how many of them are in working condition, to know what are the problems that those that are not workable have and also state the amount of money required to amend the faulty ones.

The MP said NEMS officials should also furnish the committee documents which show their terms of reference in dealing with the ambulance services.

In his submissions, the MP from Tonkolili district, Hon Aruna Papay Larkoh said, as MPs they have observed that MPs are now paying huge sums for the ambulance service which supposed to be free of charge.

He said most of the community people are being deprived to access ambulances, adding that there are times when people died because of the faulty ambulance in their communities.

Hon. Larkoh said, the National Emergency Medical Service officials should institute their monitoring power to ensure that ambulances doing the job for which they are bought for.

Other MPs who are members of the Health Committee in Parliament also shed light on the lack of ambulances in their communities which sometimes resulted to death.

“My Constituents in Bundubu are suffering due to lack of ambulance. There is no ambulance at Bundubu health center, I am always called up whenever one of my constituents fell sick. Try to renovate our ambulance” SLPP female MP Hon. Johnson said.

In Bo, MPs share similar dismay over the lack of ambulance services which has negatively impacted on the lives of their people.

They called on NEM’s authorities to make sure all the ambulances are in perfect working condition so as to save the lives of under-five years, lactating mothers and pregnant women across the country.

However, Officials from the National Emergency Medical Service pointed out lots of challenges they are facing to the Parliamentary Committee on Health.

They said, the Secretariat is faced with backlog salaries and lack of funds to fixed up the faulty ambulances.

They appealed to the committee to ensure that they sit with the Ministry of Health and Sanitation to fix the problems associated to the ambulance service system.