By: Nyima Sillah
Former Tumana MP, Honorable Foday N.M. Drammeh has said that the government is spending D94 million on maintaining ambulances annually.
In an interview with this medium, Hon. Drammeh said “In 2021, the Gambia government procured eighty new ambulances and added them to the existing ones. But for the procurement of the new ambulances, the Gambia government was spending D94 million on the maintenance of the already existing ones. This is the amount that they are paying on annual basis to Riders for Health to maintain the already existing ambulances across the length and breadth of The Gambia.”
He continued that “With these new ones, the questions now would be, how much does the Gambia Government trying to spend on the maintenance of both the old and the new ambulances across the length and breadth of The Gambia?”
However, Hon. Drammeh added that looking at the issues emerging from the Ministry of Health, it is high time for the Minister to tell the Gambian people the priorities of his Ministry.
He stressed that if the Minister give the priorities of the Ministry, they would know what to do because there are lots of lapses in the ministry that need to be fixed, and consequently, the EFSTH is the only backup health facility in the country.
He suggested to the Minister of Health to come up with something that will indicate their priorities to the Gambians and assure them of working towards meeting some of these priorities.
“I know in a few months the ministry of health and all other ministries would be going for budget bilateral. There they can try to at least figure out these things and then put these things in their budgets and assure us that they are going to fund it so that we can address the issue once and for all.
“Once these things are addressed, it will go a long way in trying to help Gambians and even non-Gambians living in the Gambia in terms of health-related issues. And the Ministry also need to tell us the amount of money that they are now putting in to maintain these old and new ambulances.”
