Members of the !Kung Traditional Authority has raised concerns over healthcare service delivery in their area.

Its chief, Ilony Arnold, is asking for answers after the ambulance driver of Omatako Clinic was reassigned to the Mangetti Dune Health Centre.

According to Arnold, the ambulance driver, whose official duty station is Omatako Clinic, has been stationed at Mangetti Dune for the past six years.

She said the reassignment has left Omatako Clinic without both a driver and an operating ambulance service.

The driver was allegedly called to assist at Mangetti Dune Health Centre in 2019, but never returned to Omatako.

"We were having an ambulance and a driver in our area, and we don't know what happened to the driver with the ambulance to move to Mangetti, which is now a big challenge here, especially for someone who is very sick or a pregnant person who needs urgent transport to Grootfontein hospital, but there is no ambulance."

She further added that patients wait for days to receive medical assistance, and people with vehicles have to transport patients by themselves instead of waiting for the ambulance, and this comes at a cost.

Mangetti Dune Health Centre already has its own ambulance driver, and Arnold questions why two drivers and two ambulances have been assigned there.

She also said there is a need to upgrade Omatako Clinic into a health centre, citing increasing demand and the wide area it serves.

The spokesperson of the Ministry of Health and Social Services, Walters Kamaya, said the driver was reassigned, though still in the employ of the ministry, but not as a driver.

The Director of Health in the Otjozondjupa Region, Gebhardo Timotheus, said the ministry allocated ambulances for the Tsumkwe Constituency in 2020 and last year again.

He said the constituency has been served from Tsumkwe, with four new vehicles in addition to the existing fleet, in the past five years.

He says Tsumkwe serves both Maghetti Health Centre and Omatako Clinic.