The first time I saw a documentary on how drones were used to transport blood in Rwanda, I said to myself: “Wow! These people have really advanced. When will our backward nation ever get to this level?” Fortunately, it was one of the many thoughts that I never found the time to write about.
Today, my government has contracted a company, Zipline, to do the same thing in Ghana. The single sourced contract is worth $12 million. Tongues are wagging and the government is busily defending the deal.
Would I exclaim the same praise I showered on Paul Kagame’s Rwanda? I admit, with shame, that I will not defend this deal. I admit not everything we see and praise elsewhere will be ideal for our situation.
Some analysts have done value for money analyses and it doesn’t appear the figures support the service we will get in return. This contract smells of fraud and corruption. It is one of the deals that will see millions leave the leaking purse without any accountability. But that’s not the focus of this piece.
My focus is on the priority. Are drones on top of our priority list of healthcare problems? The Ghana Health Service and the Ministry of Health have often told us the main problems confronting the healthcare sector. We don’t have basic and essential drugs in our hospitals. We don’t have ambulances to take care of accident victims and patients who are referred from one health facility to another.
The money involved in the drones’ contract can procure at least 150 ambulances. Almost every district hospital in Ghana has the capacity to accept blood from willing donors when the need arises. In the districts and in the rural parts of the country, communal living is still a cherished value. Whenever it is announced that someone needs blood, you find many people lining up to donate.
That is not to say there won’t ever be the need to urgently get blood somewhere it is needed. That is a reality. But that reality does not come close to the need for ambulances, which the country does not have.
It is only the presidency that does not have shortage of ambulances; for if the president or his vice are going to eat lunch, ambulances follow them to the restaurant. The rest of us have to struggle in taxicabs, pick-up trucks and other trucks for those in the remote part of the country. Women in labour are carried on bicycles and motorbikes over many kilometres whenever complications arise.
Most districts in Ghana do not have even a single ambulance. Districts such as Kete-Krachi, would need at least three ambulances, but it has none. If a patient in Krachi is referred to Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra, it takes at least 24 hours for the ambulance to return to base. The many communities in the district, from where referrals to the district health facility may be necessary, should have ambulances to service them.
The government needs to accept that it cannot win this debate when there appears to be no research data that places the drones above other healthcare needs. The explanation that the drones will also carry medical supplies does not make sense when basic drugs are almost always not available even in the teaching hospitals. As has been suggested by IMANI Ghana and other civil society groups, there should have been a pilot project to determine the feasibility and practicability of the technology here.
A project such as the drones deal sounds fanciful. It is one that will attract applause at a UN General Assembly or a World Health Organisation meeting on healthcare delivery. But the reality on the ground does not make it a prudent investment. It is a want, not a need. The flooding of social media with stories of drone deployment elsewhere will not wash.
It may be useful somewhere. That does not make it the best option here. Ghana and Rwanda may be similar in many ways but the peculiarity and complexity of our problems might differ.
Yvonne Nelson and Joselyn Dumas are both Ghanaians. They are both females. They are both actors. They are both very beautiful. They both have enviable shapes. But if you order Yvonne Nelson’s dress for Joselyn Dumas, we must question your intelligence and the wisdom in that expenditure must be scrutinised.
The writer, Manasseh Azure Awuni, is a journalist with Joy FM. He is the author of two books, “Voice of Conscience” and “Letters to My Future Wife”. His email address is [email protected]. The views expressed in this article are his personal opinions and do not reflect, in any form or shape, those of The Multimedia Group, where he works.
Source: Manasseh Azure Awuni/facebook
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Two things to consider, Mr. Mannaseh. Both actors can wear a similar dress. The dresses just have to be customized to their bodies, so your analogy doesn't wash. Second, there will never be a shortage of problems with the health sector. Will the drones help save lives? That should be the question.
EEIII, THIS WATCMANBA, WILL WRITE ABOUT EVERYTHING, HABA. YOU GO RWANDA AND YOU SAW ONE THERE WORKING BEAUTIFULLY AND YOU WANTED SAME IN YOUR COUNTRY, FORTUNATELY FOR YOU GOD HEARD YOUR PRAYERS AND SEND SAME TO COUNTRY, THEN YOU TURN AROUND AND CRITISIZE YOUR GOVERNMENT. WHO TOLD YOU IT WILL NOT WORK IN GHANA? LET'S TRY IT AND SEE, YOU AGAINST PEOPLE WILL BE ASHAMED. IS RWANDA BETTER THAN GHANA OR WHAT?
The Yvonne Nelson’s Dress For Joselyn is a siiiily analogy. What both have in common is an attractive figure in their own right and it is instructive to note and appreciate that they know and understand how to dress it fitting clothes. The stress is on the fitting dress and not one on one dress in other words cast and paste which for me is very childissh and a lazy maan approach.
Ghanaians have developed a very dangerous attitude where one can no longer criticize anything concerning national policy. They have all sorts of funny ways to make mockery of every sensible analysis of very important issues. Are we too comical as a people or it is just the way we are? We can't have a constructive dialogue devoid of politics and for that single reason politicians will always take us for a ride. You know why? I will tell you the reason: No matter how outlandish a policy is there will always be politically sympathetic supporters to back it and the rest have fun cracking joke about it! I am not surprised that when billionaires are being listed I am yet to hear the name of a single Ghanaian being on the list. We need to be serious as a nation and as a people! For once. We are all interested in making quick money but not through critical thinking. It is when you think critically that you can ask the hard questions and when you find the answers to those hard questions then you develop and progress. We have too much noise in our airwaves without any sensible discourse!
$12mil may buy 150 ambulances but then you are left with nothing to run and maintain those machines. If you are to include the cost of running and maintaining the ambulance, I bet you your $12mil will finish in no time!! In this country we talk too much and do (the actually important task) so very little. What is so different in Rwanda that wont make this work in Ghana? On the fraud on corruption, Rwandans are paying $22 per trip, in Ghana we'll pay $17. Also mind you the american company doing this project is governed by the FCPA and all american companies outside america take that Act very very seriously.
Is it not that we don't just wish our own well to succeed when there are a clear case Projects which is working successfully somewhere, where our circumstance is identical and therefore have the advantage and the privilege of leapfrogging in terms of the application of tested tech knowledge? It seems to me that in Ghana today just opposing and running things and people down have taken the place of informed and constructive criticism. In Ghana today we have a deficit in our road and rail network, especially to our rural communities where there are chip compounds built by the previous Administration. These facilities lack storage facilities for certain medications which the introduction of drone services can help bridge it. So I just don't understand why Manasseh is suggesting to say that the drones are misplaced priority though he hails and is marveled at that of Rwanda.
Mr. Azure, Please remember that being a Ghanaian, being an actor, or being beautiful cannot be measured. But dresses are measured and have sizes. There is nothing like Ghanaian size 8 or 10. or Actor 15 or 20. But dresses come in L, XL, XXL, 8, 10, etc. So if the results in Rwanda and elsewhere have been measured they are quantifiable and can be replicated elsewhere. The beauty, actor-ship etc analogy you paint cannot be measured and replicated. Apply some intelligence also in your comparison, just as you demand of others.
We are a country full of talkers and some writers. Writers who are spawned by simplistic public opinion sometimes. When you read their articles you clearly see it is just sentimental and devoid of thoughtful substance. India has sent satellites to space but it has some of the poorest people in the world including bad roads etc. Drones can't replace ambulances, but what drones can do ambulances too cannot do and vice versa. The reasoning in this write is like you need a shoe before a tie. But both perform totally different roles to achieve different ends. Has the drone technology achieved results elsewhere? Yes. So why should ambulances be supplied first before drones? if we start this and train our youth properly (a lot of them with ICT training are roaming the streets) in it through a BOT scheme do we know what will happen in 10 years? It's time we move along with technology and stop this do this first and then that. Just imagine the rate of accidents on our roads, so if another mechanism is to augment the process in EMERGENCY situations what is the fuss
That is one major problem we have in this country. Journalists in Ghana think they are more knowledgeable, more intelligent and more upright than the rest of us. That whatever they are able to write should be taken as the absolute truth, that all others are lying and corrupt. They know every subject under the sun than those who even have higher degrees in the particular field. If I am not mistaken, this attitude of journalists has been the main factor that has delayed the RTI passage. I stand corrected.
.. on point Manasseh. Supply all district hospitals with ambulances first and then you can go for your drones