The Tribune

By NICO SCAVELLA

Tribune Staff Reporter

nscavella@tribunemedia.net

THE government yesterday commissioned ten new “top of the line” ambulances to improve its capacity to respond to medical emergencies.

At a commissioning ceremony at the Sandilands Rehabilitation Centre, Health Minister Dr Perry Gomez commissioned ten new Ford F-350 2016 ambulances, each valued at $140,000, which he said will better allow for National Emergency Medical Services (NEMS) to “rapidly respond to the calls of the ill and injured”.

The ambulances commissioned yesterday are part of a fleet of some 25 additional ambulances to be purchased by the Public Hospitals Authority (PHA).

“These vehicles will help our National Emergency Medical Services to more effectively fulfil their mandate to rapidly respond to the calls of the ill and injured with the view of saving lives and promoting recovery,” Dr Gomez said yesterday.

“With these ambulances added to the vehicles in our NEMS fleet, we can expect to move forward with the strategic deployment of ambulances to various zones in New Providence and Grand Bahama.”

In December, the National Insurance Board turned over two ambulances to the PHA to assist in improving response times to emergencies.

Dr Gomez said at the time that those two ambulances, along with the ones commissioned yesterday, will allow for the retirement of “aging vehicles” from the PHA’s existing fleet, and also allow for the implementation of the “decentralised ambulance service” to the public clinics in Flamingo Gardens, South Beach, Elizabeth Estates and Eight Mile Rock in Grand Bahama.

Once stationed in those areas and fully equipped with the necessary trained emergency technicians, emergency response times are expected to drop from an average of 28 minutes to eight minutes, officials have said.

Dr Gomez also previously said that the PHA would seek to deploy ambulances to north Andros, Bimini and San Salvador in the coming year.