New Delhi: Essential ambulance services in the Capital have once again hit a roadblock, as most of the emergency vehicles required to ferry patients are reportedly running in poor conditions.
According to sources at Centralised Accident and Trauma Services (CATS), around 54 of its ambulances are in a vulnerable condition as they are missing basic emergency support system, like oxygen masks, cardiac monitors and blood pressure monitors.
Moreover, a few days ago, during peak hour, an ambulance was found to be have been parked and locked at the Najafgarh CATS base, as it was in a terrible condition. The ambulance also has no pilot, no paramedic and gets no calls.
Speaking to Millennium Post over the phone, an ambulance pilot who works at the base said, "The ambulances in Najafgarh, in the south west district, are not mechanically fit for operation. There is no work here, so we sit idle. All the calls from this zone are routed to ambulances in other zones."
Parked outside the base is another such mechanically unfit ambulance Beta 52, an advanced life support (ALS) vehicle.
At first glance, the ambulance looks like someone torched it. However, a staffer at the base explained, "Some months ago, the ambulance had just come back from a hospital. The pilot parked it and went for a break and within minutes, it burst into flames. Since then, no one has bothered to repair the vehicle."
"The servicing is to be done near Badarpur border, but authorities are not willing to transport it. This ambulance is the most advanced one, meant for critical cases. But it has been dumped here for a long time," he said.
Beta 52 is not the only ambulance 'dumped' at the Najafgarh base. Sources claim that at least 20 ambulances in the south west district are not able respond to calls, as they are non-operational due to mechanical reasons.
"Moreover, four ambulances in north district, two in the west district and 14 in the east and south districts have been lying unused for a long time," a sources at CATS said.
Sources also informed that another ambulance in the Beta series in the south west district has been lying defunct for over a year, but the administration is paying no heed.
More alarmingly, the source pointed out that around six vehicles out of 26-ambulance fleet in the south west district is supposed to cater to around 22 lakh people.
He, however, added that each day an ambulance is non-operational, a hefty penalty is levied on the companies contracted by CATS to drive ambulances. The penalty ranges between Rs 1,500 and 4,500.
Sources further said that around 60 ambulances among Delhi's fleet of CATS 265 were non-operational due to some mechanical fault.
South west district is the worst hit, with 77 per cent of its ambulances non operational.
On an average, CATS receives around 13,000 emergency calls every month.