8 Onuador Vans Abandoned To Rot At Korle-Bu
8 Onuador Vans Abandoned To Rot: Joy News investigations have revealed that eight Mobile-clinic vans imported by the John Mahama administration are currently rotting away at Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital.
The specialized vans were designed for general medicine, ophthalmology, dentistry, and audiology assessment and were meant to bridge the gap between urban and rural healthcare delivery.
However, all 8 vans are rusting away at the premier hospital while healthcare delivery in rural areas remains poor.
Joy News checks indicate that the mobile-clinic vans were registered in the year 2014 and the then National Democratic Congress (NDC) government was in the process of sourcing funds for the operations of the vans before it exited office in 2016.
Further checks revealed that the vans were to serve about 46 districts across the country.
The plan, according to credible sources, was to procure a total of 40 vans – four vans for each the ten regions – but that plan was curtailed with the exit of the NDC government after the unsuccessful 2016 re-election bid.
However, before leaving power, the NDC government had effectively procured all the relevant equipment to make the eight vans operational.
According to former Health Minister, Alex Segbefia, the running cost for the vans was huge, but after their launch in 2015, they proved very useful in the screening of Ghanaians in the Brong Ahafo and the Eastern regions when parts of the country were hit with meningitis.
Mr. Segbefia added that despite a few other challenges, the mobile clinic vans proved useful as individuals and churches started hiring them to screen their people at health-focused events.
The former Minister, charged the current New Patriotic Party (NPP) government to source for funds to operationalize the vans in order to achieve the purpose for which they were procured.
