Ambulances mere transport vehicles

A mere glance at the roads outside government hospitals gives an impression that the Capital does not lack in terms of number of ambulances. Given the fact that there are a number of private agencies operating ambulances, apart from the 151 CATS ambulances and around half a dozen of such vehicles or more with every public hospital, this can be considered a safe assumption.

But the real problem lies not with the quantity, but the quality of the equipment and services provide inside these vehicles. The available facilities, or rather the lack of it, have turned the ambulances into mere patient transport vehicles instead of life-support emergency vehicles.

Only a few days ago, the wife of a filmmaker, who died from electrocution, alleged that the ambulance he was being transported in, did not have a first aid box and the doctor did not even check his pulse.

Vikas Tripathi, an official with VIVO Healthcare that provides emergency medical services, said the lack of training to the paramedics in ambulances leads to such a response.
“Following the protocol is most important in such cases. If the allegations are true, the paramedic must have not known the protocols to be followed in such cases,” he said.
In only April this year, the Comptroller and Auditor General had found that ambulances in some government hospitals lacked basic life supports such as oxygen cylinders, suction pumps, stethoscopes and first aid boxes.