Govt ready to borrow, buy, rent ambulances

With the Commonwealth Games deadline fast approaching and the partnership with Fortis Hospital failing, sourcing ambulances has become a major concern for the Health department.

In desperation, the state department has decided to buy, borrow and rent.

In a recent meeting with the heads of over 30 private hospitals in Delhi, Health minister Kiran Walia discussed the options, one of which is using the services pro-bono.

“The private hospitals have been considerate and have offered us help in every possible way,” Walia said. “Many of them are offering us brand new ambulances for use during the Games. There is no reason to worry as the ambulances will be arranged well within time.”

The Delhi government will soon place urgent short notice tenders to procure 31 ambulances — of which 21 will be Advanced Life Support (ALS) ambulances and 10 Basic Life Support (BLS) ambulances.

“We will have ALS and one BLS ambulance in each of our hospitals. Besides, we will rent ambulances and ensure there is no shortage,” she added. The tender process is likely to be over within two months.

The state government had earlier partnered with the Fortis Group to roll out 150 fully equipped ambulances in time for the Games. The first batch was to be delivered in January. The PPP, however, fell apart after the Health minister inspected the fleet and found that they had failed to meet government specifications.

The Health department will soon be approaching an arbitrator for a closure on the PPP with Fortis.

Of the 150 ambulances, 141 will be for basic life support and nine advanced life support. Besides, there will be 20 ‘first-responder’ (two-wheeler) vehicles — the objective of which will be to reach the victim within 15-20 minutes of receiving the call for help.

Since 1991, pre-hospital medical emergency transportation and ambulance services have been provided through the Centralised Accident and Trauma Services (CATS). Currently, there are 35 CATS ambulances spread across 21 base stations in the city.

On an average, five to six of these remain off roads due to maintenance problems each month.