State to buy 500 more ambulances

NT Correspondent

The state government has decided to buy 500 new ambulances to attend to medical emergencies and a tender for this will be floated next week, said Health and Medical Education Minister Dr K Sudhakar.

Replying to Krishna Byre Gowda in the State Legislative Assembly here on Thursday, he said the state is facing a shortage of 250 ambulances as per the World Health Organization and National Health Mission. The state has 500 ambulances as against the demand for 750 ambulances.

Karnataka had pioneered the launch of 108 ambulance service under the Arogya Kavacha scheme with private participation for the first time in the country way back in 2008. The then government had signed a MOU with a company on the maintenance of the fleet of ambulances.

The minister said the company initially offered very good service by attending to all emergencies in time. Subsequently, the company ran into financial problems and the service took a severe beating. In 2017, the then government wanted to cancel the MOU with the company and call for a fresh tender to offer better services to the poor and needy.

Meanwhile, the company moved court and got the agreement extended three or four times. As against the required 750 ambulances, only 500 ambulances are running with complaints rampant about their services. These complaints pertain to ambulances not reaching in time, refusal to shift patients and breakdown of vehicles.