China donates 12 ambulances to FG centres

The 11 centres were equipped with an ambulance by the Chinese government.Another ambulance was given to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and nine to federal hospitals.The holding facility is also being fitted with an isolation unit for quarantining and monitoring any returnee possibly infected with Ebola, but has not had a complementary ambulance until […]

The 11 centres were equipped with an ambulance by the Chinese government.
Another ambulance was given to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and nine to federal hospitals.
The holding facility is also being fitted with an isolation unit for quarantining and monitoring any returnee possibly infected with Ebola, but has not had a complementary ambulance until this was donated last month by the Japanese government.
Accepting the ambulances in Abuja on Friday, the federal health ministry’s Permanent Secretary Linus Awute said, “We have contained the disease, but we have men and women we have sent to countries still trying to contain Ebola. Should they come with [signs], what do we do?”
He said the ambulances should help boost Nigeria’s preparedness for disease of the Ebola nature.
It is the summation of what’s expected to be a complementary element of a standard holding centre. Before now we were just having a holding centre, but we felt there must be some complementary facilities. We have started by building an isolation centre and now with an ambulance, I think that’s what will make a standard holding centre and we should be celebrating that we have that bit now,” Awute told Daily Trust.
Chinese Ambassador Gu Xiaojie said health was important to the bilateral relations between Nigeria and China.
“We uphold the efforts of Nigeria and the people to contain Ebola but we also appreciate the efforts of the Nigerian government to lend support to other Ebola-affected countries in West Africa. We are going to push for closer cooperation between Nigeria and China,” Gu said.
Teaching hospitals to get the ambulances include those attached to University of Ibadan, University of Port Harcourt, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, University of Jos, University of Maiduguri and Usmanu Danfodio University.
Other federal hospitals are Federal Medical Centre, Lokoja, Federal Teaching Hospital, Abakaliki and National Orthopaedic Hospital, Kano.
Only 11 of 12 ambulances donated were given out on Friday. The last was damaged in a crash in Kogi State during delivery from Lagos to Abuja. The driver was seriously injured but has left hospital this week, Daily Trust gathered.