President John Dramani Mahama has clarified that tricycles deployed under the government’s Free Primary Healthcare Programme are not intended to serve as ambulances.
The clarification comes amid public misconceptions about the role of tricycles in healthcare delivery following the formal launch of the Free Primary Healthcare Programme at Dodowa District Hospital in the Shai-Osuduku District of the Greater Accra Region on Wednesday, April 15, 2026.
But speaking at the Sid-Cutting ceremony for a 24-Hour Model Market in Bimbila in the Northern Region, m President Mahama explained that, the tricycles are designed to support mobility for health workers and community volunteers, enabling them to deliver essential services in the underserved communities.
“Those tricycles are not ambulances. Those tricycles are meant for the health workers and the health volunteers to go from village to village for screening. That is what they are meant for so at the back of the tricycle they have a compartment where they can keep vaccines to keep them cool,” he clarified.
He further explains the regional transport split in primary healthcare delivery, assigning tricycles to southern health workers and motorbikes to the north.
“In the north, a lot of our sisters who are health workers can ride motorcycles and so when they go for health screening, they use motorcycles.
“And in the south, many of the health workers cannot ride a motorcycle but you need to give them a means of transport to be able to go and do the work you’ve given them”, President Mahama added.
Meanwhile, the President stressed that the initiative is aimed at strengthening outreach and improving access to primary healthcare particularly in hard-to-reach areas.
Source: Starrfm.com.gh/Abdul-Hanan Adam
