Maitri Porecha
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Written By: Maitri Porecha | Updated : August 3, 2013 5:32 PM IST
Maharashtra: Go to any hospital and a battery of white cars and vans will stare you in the face outside these hospitals. They are ill-equipped ambulances stationed to lure desperate relatives of ill patients.
Mohammed Safwan's death is a case in point. The business of private ambulances in the city is highly unorganised and not regulated by either the central or state governments.
In over a decade, the number of ambulances in Maharashtra has increased by three times. According to the state transport department, in 2000 01 there were 4,052 registered ambulances. The number has swollen up to 11,797 in 2012 13. Every year, on an average, 645 new ambulances get registered in the state. Shockingly, the state transport department has no breakup of the number of registered public and private ambulances. With near to no surveillance by state authorities, private ambulance operators are free to operate in anarchy. To call upon an ambulance in case of an emergency, the harrowed citizens will have to depend on local operators or private corporate services like 1298 or Topsline (where preference is given to registered members) as most ambulances registered with hospitals are occupied with transferring sick patients.
The state health department, which has to date turned a blind eye towards streamlining government ambulance services for Mumbai, said that things are set to change with the upcoming 'ambulance on call' project. "The number 102 is not functional in Mumbai currently. We will link 102 and 108 helplines. Mumbai will receive 100 ambulances with the new project that will take off in August," said Dr Satish Pawar, director, directorate of state health services (DHS).
For over a month now the central government has been mulling on bringing the ambulance code within the mandatory framework of Central Motor Vehicles Rules. "We are yet to decide a time-frame in which the code will be mandated for implementation after consultations with vehicle manufacturers and other stakeholders," said a senior transport ministry official.
However, the state transport department in Maharashtra has no inkling that the draft ambulance code has been finalised and is due for implementation. "I am unaware about the standards related to the National Ambulance Code released by the central government. The state transport department has not been intimated about the guidelines," said BN More, Maharashtra's state transport commissioner.
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