With reports of ill-equipped ambulances in the Capital, the Health Department of the Delhi Government has proposed to rope in a fresh private company for overhauling the ambulance service.
Even St Johns' ambulance, which is now training ambulance staff, will be changed. Fresh tender will be floated for parties willing to provide training to them. The decision was taken at a recent meeting, that was held last week at the Delhi Secretariat. Until now, these ambulances were grossly lacking in basic life support equipment like oxygen cylinders, suction pumps, pulse oxy-meters and even first aid boxes.
Currently, around 150 ambulances under Delhi Health Department are plying in the city. According to a report prepared by the department, more than half of the ambulances are lacking in life support equipments. The report further states that the hospitals have been using ambulances mainly for bringing medicines from the market, dropping doctors at their residences or hospitals, carrying dead bodies to the mortuary and collecting cash from the bank.
To add to the grim state of affairs, the report further mentioned that ambulances were procured from the funds of National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) and around Rs 11 crore was sanctioned for purchasing the ambulances under Centralised Accident and Trauma Services (CATS). SCl Das, Principal Secretary (Health), confirmed the development saying the decision has been taken to replace the non-functional ambulances and upgrade the facilities.
"A robust ambulance service is a must to ensure that a patient or accident victim needing urgent medical attention is safely transported to the nearest hospital. The past decade has seen rapid advancement in the Government's understanding of the need for good ambulance services in the Capital. The pace at which the population and its requirements have grown, have been phenomenal and we haven't been able to provide the required number of ambulances for this expanding number of users," said MC Mishra, director of AIIMS trauma care center.