Dial 108, wait anxiously!

Antiquated infra, ageing fleet of ambulances to blame for poor service.

By Nischit N | NT

Bengaluru: While technology may help you order food and groceries online and get them on time, but those calling 108 for ambulance services it continues to be a long anxiety-ridden wait.

The prime reasons are antiquated infrastructure and old vehicles – something the city can ill-afford while battling the Covid-19 pandemic.

Nearly four years ago, the health department had terminated its contract with a private company to provide emergency medical response service through the 108 Arogya Kavacha ambulances, citing irregularities.

Since then it has floated numerous tenders, but drawn a poor response. It is now planning to float a new one. On the other hand it has failed to upgrade its ageing fleet.

The government had in 2008 entered into an agreement with GVK-EMRI for a period of 10 years on a PPP model. Under the arrangement, ambulance infrastructure was provided by the government while the company ran the service with its employees. As per the agreement, after running 30,000 km, the ambulances need to be changed or upgraded.

However, according to the health department, the current Arogya Kavacha-108 scheme ambulance fleet comprises 710 vehicles, out of which 340 ambulances have already crossed its kilometre limit and need to be changed immediately.

Reacting to this, Anil Kumar T.K., Principal Secretary, Health and Family Welfare Department, said, “Efforts are being made to upgrade the system at the earliest so that people do not face any inconvenience. The health department is committed to provide the best health service to people. Also the plan to call new tender for the new ambulance issue has already been discussed. It will be resolved soon.”

In July, 2017, the Health Department terminated its nine-year association with the company citing irregularities and violation of tender conditions. Later the company was told to serve a 3-month notice period till October.

While the department had invited tenders for a new service provider, the company approached the Karnataka High Court challenging the termination of their service before the expiry of their 10-year contract period. The company also contended that in the fresh tenders, the conditions were such that GVK was unable to participate.

Subsequently, in December 2017 the department relaxed tender conditions citing poor response to the tenders (only two bidders had participated). After this, GVK-EMRI was asked to continue providing services till January 31, 2018.

Thereafter, the re-tendering process was further delayed due to Assembly elections in 2019 and the company was again asked to continue till further orders. Now, two years after elections, the department is yet to invite fresh tenders.

As per health department sources, the current availability of ambulances is one ambulance per one lakh population. But plans are to increase it to one ambulance for every 45,000 to 50,000 of the population.

“There are a lot of issues with the ambulance service, as recently over 3,000 staff members of 108 Arogya Kavacha ambulance service including 1,556 ambulance pilots (drivers) and 1,503 Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs) apart from call centre employees were not paid. So if this continues, the situation will be worse for the government to handle the pandemic, so it’s better to solve it as soon as possible and provide good health service to the public,” said Puneeth T, activist.