Some members of the Minority in Parliament have filed a private member’s motion to probe the circumstances leading to the death of a woman in an ambulance en route to the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital from Fijai in Takoradi.
The woman, Augustine Awortwe, was being moved from the Holy Child Catholic Hospital at Fijai in Takoradi in the Western Region, to the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, Accra, on January 4, 2022, after she had delivered a baby.
The proponents of the motion are Mohammed Mubarak Muntaka, Kwabena Mintah Akandoh, Mark Kurt Nawaane and Elizabeth Ofosu Adjare.
There were concerns that haggling over the purchase of fuel for the ambulance caused some delays that may have contributed to the death of the woman.
According to the family of the deceased, the delay was occasioned by their inability to readily come up with the sum of GH¢600, to cover the cost of fuel for the ambulance.
The Western Regional National Ambulance Service however refuted such claims.
According to the service, there were some issues with respect to whether the mother’s baby should be transported alongside its mother.
The service however admitted that the ambulance was low on fuel and needed money because of the unexpected distance the ambulance would have covered.
“We normally discuss with the relatives to find a way because the fuel is planned around the accident scene rather than taking patients and running around with them,” the Western Region Coordinator of the National Ambulance Service, Dr. Tawiah Tsiameh, told Citi News.
The family eventually paid GH¢50, while the clinic paid GH¢550.
