The Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) has demanded that government deploys ambulances at tollgates to save lives of accident victims who are dying due to lack of immediate help along major highways.
In a statement, CCC Secretary for Transport, Settlement Chikwinya said stationing of ambulances at tollgates was embraced by all stakeholders with the ball now in government’s court to ensure it is done.
Below is Chikwinya’s full statement;
Most road traffic accident victims die within the first hour if they do not recieve adequate medical attention, study has shown.
It is with this realisation in mind that the idea of stationing ambulance services at all toll gates was embraced by all road stakeholders as far back as May 2021 but up to now, victims of road traffic accidents continue to loose life with government sitting on ambulances donated for deployement at Tollgates without stationing them where they are due.
The World Health Organization in May 2021 donated 10 Ambulances to render quick response medical services from Tollgates and these where recieved by the Minister of Health Hon Chiwenga but sadly these ambulances are still docked in government park yards somewhere.
Recently the Insurance Council of Zimbabwe donated four more ambulances for the same purposes as Zimbabwe intends to to raise the figure of Ambulances to be stationed at Tollgates to twenty but still none of these have been deployed with no explanation from Chiwenga.
The Citizens Coalition for Change calls of the government to expedite the deployment of this critical service especially at this time when we are heading towards rainy season and Christmas holidays a season that is characterized by high road traffic accident rate.
Ambulances at Toll gates arrive much faster at accident scenes because they do not have to weave through the high traffic volume that characterizes our city centers especially during peak hours.
This service if properly implemented as per the recommendations of the World Health Organization will definitely save many lives and we call upon Hon Chiwenga the Minister of Health to immediately release the available Ambulances for work so that we minimise any further loss of life.