A $16M river ambulance was commissioned for the Moruca Sub-Region in Barima-Waini last week, the Department of Public Information has reported.

This fulfils a commitment made to ensure a vessel was made available to transport emergencies between the Moruca Sub-Region to Charity. The 30-feet river ambulance is furnished with the necessary equipment to facilitate pregnant mothers and persons who have experienced trauma and other major accidents. At the commissioning ceremony on February 28, in Georgetown, Minister of Public Health, Volda Lawrence, acknowledged this as a landmark achievement for the ministry and the people of Region One.

She especially noted her satisfaction that pregnant women can now safely travel from Moruca to Charity. “It is with much joy and great pleasure that the Ministry of Public Health can be able to meet that mandate as set out by his Excellency President David Granger. That the same quality of health services provided on the coast must be the same quality offered to our people in the hinterland or any other part of this country,” the minister stated.

Director of Regional and Clinical Health Services, Dr. Kay Shako, said it is the ministry’s aim “to ensure that healthcare is accessible, acceptable, timely and adequate to meet the needs of the residents within Region One.”

She noted that with the availability of the river ambulance, healthcare delivery has been taken to another level and staff of the Kumaka District hospital in Moruca can now execute their functions more effectively. In the second half of 2019, during a visit to the Moruca Sub-Region, the public health minister disclosed that her ministry intends to have three river ambulances service the communities in Region One. Within the last two years, river ambulances have also been placed at Orealla, Bartica, Linden, Baracara, Kwakwani along with a boat and engine for Santa Mission.