Emergency services and the Ministry’s health response has been given a major boost with the acquisition and handing over of ten (10) ambulances and ten (10) vector control pickups. The vehicles, purchased through the National Health Fund (NHF) and the (Culture, Health, Arts, Sports and Education) CHASE Fund, were officially handed over to the Regional Health Authorities and the Jamaica Fire Brigade by the Minister of Health, the Honourable Horace Dalley today (February 22, 2016) at the National Public Health Laboratory.
Minister Dalley said “this represents a historic day for the Ministry of Health as it is the largest fleet to be added since 2012. Since 2012 we wanted to increase our fleet to be better able to deliver service to our people and we have kept that promise as we have increased the fleet since then to 90 vehicles.”
Minister Dalley also added that the fleet addition in conjunction with strategic partnerships with supporting agencies and the fire brigade we will “enable us to be in a better position to deal with accidents on the roads and emergency services for citizens.”
The cost for the ten (10) retro-fitted ambulances is approximately eighty four million dollars ($83,896,418.95), the five (5) 2016 Nissan Frontiers funded by CHASE are valued at approximately twenty one million dollars ($21,576,000) and the five (5) 2016 Toyota Hilux funded by the National Health Fund are valued at approximately twenty three million dollars ($23,693,773.00).