This story is from May 4, 2021

Ambulance demand up, citizens left to fend for themselves

As complaints about shortage of ambulances, increased waiting time and drivers demanding exorbitant charges pour in from across the city, many NGOs and resident welfare associations are purchasing/hiring ambulances to be prepared during emergencies.
Ambulance demand up, citizens left to fend for themselves
Drive Without Borders, an NGO repurposed a Maruti Omni van into an ambulance.
BENGALURU: As complaints about shortage of ambulances, increased waiting time and drivers demanding exorbitant charges pour in from across the city, many NGOs and Resident Welfare Associations are purchasing/hiring ambulances to be prepared during emergencies.
The move comes following the government’s failure to provide adequate number of ambulances and regulate fares.
Waseem Memon of Drive Without Borders, an NGO, said: “We recently bought a Maruti Omni and converted it into an ambulance with stretcher and oxygen facility at a cost of Rs 1.3 lakh.
This entire process took a week. We propose to have more such ambulances at the earliest.”
“The service will be provided for free. We hope to support at least a few families during these extremely distressing times,” he said. “Stories of ambulances charging Rs 30,000-40,000 to cover only 4-5km are heart-rending. Patients’ families neither have the choice nor the luxury of looking for other options because timely medical help is crucial,” added Memon.
He said they’ve started a crowd-funding initiative through — effortsforgood.org — to ready 12 ambulances and need Rs 12.5 lakh for the purpose. “We have mobilised 1.8 lakh so far,” he added.
Abdul Aleem, co-convener, Changemakers of Kanakapura Road, said: “We had hired two ambulances from July 2020 to March 2021 during the first wave of Covid-19. We collected Rs 60 a month per family from around 4,000 households in our area. The ambulance provider was charging around Rs 1.8 lakh a month and deployed three nursing staffers and two drivers.”

He added: “We are planning to continue the facility as the demand has increased during the second wave. Earlier, we used to cater to 30 patients a month.”
Manoj Padikkal, chairman (school transport wing, south zone), Bus & Car Operators Confederation of India, said: “We have more than 3,000 school vans and buses in Bengaluru alone. In Gujarat, many school vans were repurposed into ambulances. We could provide our vehicles, many of which are lying idle since schools remain closed, to governments and NGOs to help the needy.”
‘Dept should fix fare’
Muralidhar Rao, a founder member of Bangalore Apartments Federation (NGO), said: “There are practical issues in RWAs maintaining these ambulances, especially after this pandemic. An aggregator model like Ola and Uber will be more reliable and offer a better service. There are several instances of ambulance drivers demanding exorbitant rates. The transport department should fix a fare.”
Though states like Rajasthan have capped ambulance fares, Karnataka is yet to do so. “We have no such plan as of now. We will consider it only if the health department approaches us. If we take action against errant ambulance operators, they may go on strike and patients will struggle,” said a senior transport department official.
Prabhdeep Singh, CEO & founder of StanPlus, an ambulance provider which recently launched operations in Bengaluru, said, “We are looking forward to bringing our reliable services to the people of Bengaluru and bolstering patient experience through numerous strategic partnerships and highly competitive price points...”
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About the Author
Christin Mathew Philip

Christin Mathew Philip is a Principal Correspondent with The Times of India, Bengaluru. He writes on urban mobility and traffic issues. He is the winner of Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism award (2015) for his reporting on civic issues in Chennai. He worked in TOI Chennai (2011-2016) before moving to The New Indian Express, Bengaluru in 2016.

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