CHANDIGARH
There was an announcement in December 2022 by the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) to deploy 900 ambulances over all toll plazas across the country. However, when it comes to Punjab, it’s a different reality. Forget about the NHAI orders, in Punjab the 108 ambulance services are in a pathetic state.
Private ambulance services indulge in a money-minting game. The Sunday Guardian investigated the game plan of private ambulance services and private hospitals on how they fleece their patients. Patients are made to stay longer and remain admitted in private hospitals due to “unavailability of the requisite life-support system in existing ambulance services of the area”. The handful of life-support ambulances do not have Non-invasive Ventilator System (Bi-Pap) enabled in them. Patients whose SPO2 i.e. oxygen saturation falls up to 50 or 60 due to any medical condition like pneumonia or heart arrest, often are put on Bi-Pap ventilation and if the attendant somehow lands in a private hospital for initial life support treatment, he then would not have option to further go to any government tertiary or premier care hospital. This is because of non-availability of Portable Battery Enabled Bi-Pap machine in the Advanced Life Support ambulance, though the same battery-enabled Bipap Portable Machine is readily available on rent at heavy prices. The Sunday Guardian spoke to an anaesthesia specialist of a private hospital. On the condition of anonymity, he said, “There is a silent agreement between ambulance service providers and private hospitals for not providing non-invasive ventilator in the ambulance so as to force the attendant to keep their patient with the private hospital and CCU admission in any private hospital for a few days the cost of which can run into lakhs.”
There are 325 ambulances in the state, out of which 25 are Advanced Life Support Ambulances, out of which 22 are meant to be placed in the district hospitals and the rest three are meant to stay with the Chief Minister and ex-Chief Minister of the state. The rest 300 ambulances of 108 are Basic Life Support enabled. As per 108 Punjab Ambulance employees’ union President Manpreet Singh Nijjer, “The 300 Basic Life Support Ambulances that are provided by Ziqitza Healthcare Limited, all 300 ambulances are just patient transferring vehicles and are without oxygen cylinder or non-working cylinders, and have non-working ventilator system; no pregnancy kits are available and if available, the kits are expired. Many private ambulances are running in vans that lag the requisite life support system.” Nijjer told this paper that 108 Ambulance service provider company named Ziqitza Healthcare Limited was blacklisted in Rajasthan and the CBI had found them accused in the scam. This same company has been providing ambulance services in Punjab since 2011. As per Nijjer, this same company has been getting contract of ambulance services in Punjab continuously. But so far as services are concerned, there is no life-support present in the ambulances of 108. Recently, 108 Ambulance employees’ union went on strike as Punjab government allegedly failed to fulfil promises made by the Health Minister seven months ago. Amandeep Singh, state president of the 108 Employees’ Union, and Vice President Joga Singh, have been advocating for government takeover of their services to protect employees from distant transfers, which have adversely affected their lives. In a decisive move, the 108 Ambulance Workers Union had announced to go on strike from 4 August for an indefinite period to press for their demands. The 108 Ambulance workers told The Sunday Guardian that the condition of ambulances running in the state are in a pathetic condition and should only be called “patient transfer vehicles” and not ambulances.