MP Rwebyambu advises electorate on proper use of gov’t ambulances

Amos Tayebwa

Mbarara

The Woman Member of Parliament for Mbarara District, Margret Rwebyambu has asked government ambulance operators in her area to use the vehicles to carry to patients, not dead bodies, luggage and passengers.

Rwebyambu says this is a directive form the Ministry of Health and must be adhered to.

The call was made today, Thursday 6 March, during the handover ceremony of a brand new Class B Ambulance for Kashari North Constituency which was put at Rubindi Health Center III.

She was in company of top district officials who included the Chief Administrative Officer, David Muhwezi, the DHO, area politicians and other stakeholders.

This Ambulance was donated by the Ministry of Health following the lobbying prowess of two area MPs—Rwebyambu and the Kashari North County MP Basil Bataringaya.

The Ambulance is well equipped to offer intensive care  services.

According to MP Rwebyambu, the donation and the handing over of this ambulance is purposely to reduce maternal health challenges but was quick to add that everyone can use this ambulance in case of any issue that would require a referral.

“When we were giving out this Ambulance, the DHO and the CAO, following the directive from the ministry, said that this ambulance is not there to carry dead bodies. I also emphasize on it.

The reason is that this ambulance is a min-hospital well equipped with ICU services. It is not for transporting dead bodies. And in reality we are putting up these ambulances to save lives, and dead bodies are already dead bodies. You might be carrying a dead body to Rukungiri or Kabale or elsewhere and then there is someone who needs to be taken to the Hospital to secure a life. Now if you are carrying the dead body somewhere and you miss out on securing someone’s life, do you see that there is an issue there? So that’s why we are discouraging these ambulances to begin carrying dead bodies,” said MP Rwebyambu.

“And I want to appeal to people outside there that in case you call any of the leaders or the ambulance driver and say they are not going to take the dead body it is a directive right from the ministry of health,” she added.

MP Rwebyambu has also condemned the tendency of political criticism and demonizing the achievements of some leaders.

She appealed to the public to give credit where it is due.

“If there is this ambulance that I and my colleague MP Bazil have lobbied for from the government and it is here to help the people, give it a credit because it is a live testimony. It is there and there is no way how you will tell people that it is not there. Politicking and demonizing someone or downplaying whatever someone does I don’t think is good politics. I believe the people that mandated us have eyes to see and at the end of it all will decide whether what I am doing is right, whether what they sent me for is what I am doing for them or not,” Rwebyambu lamented.

According to an ambulance census conducted in 2019 by the Ministry of Health, Uganda required 460 ambulances to support its health care system, however at the time, the country only had 178 government ambulances and 172 private ambulances. But following the amendment by the international health standards, that requires Uganda to upgrade its current fleet of ambulances to meet the required health standards, this pushed the shortage of ambulances to 340 including 315 Type B Road Ambulances with each costing UGX280m thus creating a funding gap of UGX88.2bn.