By Laudia Sawer
Tema, Feb. 9, GNA- Vice President Dr Mahamadu Bawumia has touted the improvement made in Ghana’s healthcare system, having the largest medical drone delivery service in the world, which is being manned by Ghanaian youth.
The country currently has an impressive 100 per cent drone centres manned by young talented Ghanaians.
The Vice President and the Presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) said this when he outlined his vision for the country ahead of Election 2024 in Accra.
It was on the theme: “Ghana’s Next Chapter: Selfless Leadership and Bold Solutions for the Future.”
Ghana has six Zipline Distribution Centres in various regions including Omenako and Anum, Eastern Region, Mpanya, Ashanti, Vobsi, North East, Sefwi Wiawso, Western North, and Kete Krachi, Oti Region.
These centres had made millions of deliveries of medicines, blood, and vaccines to very remote parts of Ghana and had saved many lives, as the Zipline services were available 24 hours a day, Vice President Bawumia said.
He recounted with pain when his father underwent surgery at the Tamale Teaching Hospital, and at a point in the night when he started losing blood, the doctors tried in vain to get some from the blood bank, but it was closed.
“I tried to get the phone number of the one in charge and made several calls to no avail. We were running against time, and by the morning, my dad had died,” he said.
With that painful experience, which Dr Bawumia noted would be with him forever, he was determined to get Zipline’s drone technology for Ghana to save lives from needless deaths.
“I went to Sillicon Valley in the USA and had a meeting with the co-founder of Zipline (Robert Keller) and convinced him to set up Zipline in Ghana,” he said.
Previously, hospitals and clinics in remote and largely rural communities like Nyangbo Sroe in Afajato South, Afram Plains, Yagaba, or Yunyoo, had difficulty getting medical supplies, especially in times of emergencies involving snake bites, childbirth, and floods, the NPP Flagbearer said.
“Many lives were needlessly lost because the hospitals were unable to access critically needed supplies on time.”
To address the problem, Ghana opted to partner Zipline, the world’s largest automated on-demand delivery service, for medical supplies, he said.
GNA