Shocked by the incident of the absence of ambulance service forcing a woman to deliver a baby on the road who subsequently died, the state administration is planning to lodge FIRs against those responsible for such incidents.
The secretary medical health and family welfare Nitesh Jha said while speaking to The Pioneer on Thursday that the department would soon file criminal cases in such cases against those responsible for such incidents. He added that no leniency would be shown on the striking workers of 108 ambulance service as they are associated with a system meant to save lives of the people.
Jha said that the department has paid salary of December 2018 to the 108- ambulance workers and their strike is thus unjustified. On a stern note, he said that the indiscipline would not be tolerated and such instances would be dealt with sternly.
The secretary further said that fresh tenders to operate the fleet of 108 ambulance service have been released and the condition of responding to the call made on the 108 number within a stipulated time period would be incorporated in the text of the new agreement.
On Tuesday night, a woman in Dehradun was forced to deliver a baby on the road when her husband failed to arrange an ambulance for her in time.
On having labour pain, she was taken to the Prem Nagar hospital where in the absence of an anaesthetist she was asked to go to another hospital.
The relatives of the woman said that after 108 ambulance service had not responded to their call they were forced to hire an auto-rickshaw to ferry her, resulting in delay and delivery of the baby on the road.