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The incident happened on Thursday evening, when the patient, a 40-year-old woman came to KC General Hospital for treatment. A doctor from the Hospital said, “The patient came to us at around 3 pm after being referred from a private clinic. The patient had swollen legs and breathlessness and required a ventilator. So we called 108 at around 4 pm but they said they were not going to come.” As a result, the patient had to travel to St John’s Hospital in a hospital jeep.
According to the doctor, the reason given by the ambulance service was that the ambulance control room received many bogus calls from people, who claimed to be doctors and thought that this was one such call.
An hour after this incident, the hospital again called 108 for another patient. This time, it was for a 72-year-old woman, who had suffered paralytic stroke on the left side of her body. She was also diabetic and had hypertension. The patient had to wait for almost one-and-a-half hours. “We wanted the ambulance immediately as her condition was not good. We called the ambulance at 5 pm but they kept us waiting. After complaining to the 108 ambulance service in-charge, they sent one,” said the doctor adding that the behaviour of people, who receive the calls at the ambulance control room were very rude.
However, Bharat C Radhakrishna, CEO Emergency Management and Research Institute (EMRI) , which runs the ambulance service, refuted the charges and said, “There is absolutely no reason for us to refuse any patient irrespective of whether he is H1N1 or not.”
About shifting the second patient to Nimhans, Radhakrishna said at the time K C General Hospital approached 108 ambulance, the vehicle was apparently busy. However, the vehicle was rescheduled and the patient was shifted, he said.