RAWALPINDI:Ambulance or Emergency medical services were considered to provide urgent pre-hospital treatment, stabilization for severe illness and injuries, and transport to ultimate care has developed into a source of inconvenience for needy patients.
The private ambulances were charging gigantic charges from affiliates of mourning families to transport bodies from hospitals as the number of official vehicles available, especially at three allied hospitals, were inadequate to meet the demand.
According to details collected by reporter, a large number of private ambulances of various sizes can be witnessed lined up in front of emergency wards of Holy Family Hospital, Benazir Bhutto Hospital and District Headquarters Rawalpindi.
A private ambulance owner, requesting anonymity, said they get a list of “critical” patients every morning from the hospital’s staff to assess opportunities in their day to day business. However, he revealed that ambulance drivers hover around the wards and approach the relatives to offer their services as soon as a patient dies. As a business trick, he said many drivers sham to be shocked and grieved over the death and even join in weeping with the bereaved family members.
Raja Munno, another driver of a private ambulance stationed at the Holy Family Hospital, said usually, we charge Rs 1000 to 1200 to carry bodies in non-air-conditioned ambulances within the city.
In most cases, he said, payment was requested in advance because after reaching the destination, it quite often becomes impossible to ask for the fare.
The biggest sufferers were people outside the city who had to pay around Rs 6,000 to 7,000 to transport bodies.
During the survey, it was learnt that lower staff of the hospitals have started running their ambulance service because they get on the spot business. On the other hand, ambulance services of non-governmental organizations and volunteer bodies were not available immediately or during odd hours.
The Edhi and Chippa Ambulance service, which charges reasonable prices, were also short of vans, and it takes time to seek their service.
Every year, a lot of money was allocated to purchase ambulances for the Health Department. However, official ambulances were rarely available or were only available to the influential. Therefore, the dependents of the patients have appealed to the government to rectify the situation to save them from the private ‘ambulance mafia’, which allegedly enjoys the backing of the city hospitals’ authorities.