The Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) in collaboration with the Regional Democratic Council (RDC) of Barima-Waini, Region One, is planning to have a water ambulance placed in each sub-region as part of the effort to narrow the gap in health care delivery and Moruca will receive the first.
According to a Department of Public Information (DPI) release, this decision has been taken in acknowledgement of the fact that the Barima-Waini Region is one which has many villages located along waterways and is therefore widely accessible by water.
Although no time frame has been specified, the MoPH policy makers plan to have all the vessels delivered in a short space of time. In fact, it was just recently announced that the Moruca sub-region will receive its river ambulance shortly.
“Moruca is the first place we are going to give such an ambulance to, because we know how they suffer with that creek; so they will have the first one for this region, then we will buy another ambulance which will go to [the] Port Kaituma end that will work between Port Kaituma and Mabaruma and the third ambulance will be bought for Mabaruma,” Minister of Public Health Volda Lawrence disclosed, according to the DPI release.
The minister added that as soon as the Port Kaituma Hospital complex is functioning optimally, the ambulance for that area will work between Mabaruma and the Port Kaituma district while the extra ambulance will be placed in the Waini River to transport emergency cases from villages there. This will cater to more life-saving interventions in this part of the country whether it be an accident victim or a complicated pregnancy.
“In those ambulances, they will have everything to check your heart, your pulse, a stabiliser etc so when we take a patient and put them in there with a nurse they won’t have to wait until they get to the hospital, they can work on that patient on the way,” the minister explained.
The ambulance for Moruca is expected to be handed over to the region by October. This, along with the others to come, will add to the other water ambulances that have been given to Regions Six and Ten where some villages are only accessible by river. The MoPH is pushing efforts to ensure riverine communities have access to specialised emergency services and plans to explore the provision of water ambulances for the Pomeroon in Region Two, the DPI release added.
