Patients at Ghatal sub-divisional hospital in West Midnapore faced serious inconveniences after ambulance owners decided not to run their vehicles to protest against alleged police atrocities.
The ambulance operators at the hospital alleged that a police officer in an inebriated state on Sunday night ransacked at least eight ambulances and damaged them for no reason. The district police, however, said that the hospital authorities urged the police to take steps against the ambulances that are operated illegally and many of the drivers were indulged in anti-social activities.
As a result of this incident, the patients and their family members were affected as they did not find a vehicle to take their patients home. Outside vehicles demanded a huge amount of money from patients' relatives. Having found no option, some of the family members of the patients had to hire other vehicles to take their patients.
The incident had triggered a tension among patients and their family members. From Monday morning, the ambulance drivers did not join their work and staged demonstration inside the hospital campus alleging police atrocities. A chaos broke out following the incident at the hospital.
The ambulance drivers alleged that some police officers from Ghatal police station reached the hospital and attacked the ambulance drivers. They also damaged as many as eight ambulances. As per the allegation of the ambulance drivers, they were also heckled by the police when they protested against the incident.
A senior police officer of the district said that they had received some complaints against some of the
ambulance operators as many of them booze at the
hospital premises. The steps were taken after the
hospital superintendent and the Sub-Divisional Officer requested the police to take steps. The officer denied that ambulances were damaged by any police officer.