The Centralised Accident and Trauma Services (CATS) ambulance service helps over 8,000 patients every day to reach city hospitals in two different shifts. However, these ambulances are facing a crisis of a sort that is just uncalled for. Many ambulances operational in the city lack basic life-saving equipment such as oxygen cylinders, safety kits or even fire extinguishers. Many also don't have air-conditioning or even sirens.
None of the ambulances have swine flu kits and some even miss masks/gloves for the paramedical staff on the vehicles. Many are forced to remain off the road because of frequent breakdowns.
Earlier, the CATS staff union highlighted several problems faced by them in the past one year since Bharat Vikas Group took charge.
Last year, the staff of CATS ambulances had announced an indefinite strike thrice between August and November due to an issue with the management. The strikes were later postponed due to patients getting affected and the situation seemed to have normalised. Officials, however, told DNA that not much has changed on the ground.
"We get only Rs 500 or Rs 700 for fuel a day for each vehicle, that's not how ambulances run. When we get emergency calls, we should not be worried about fuel in the car, that's the last thing a para-medical staff should bother himself with," said Deepak Chillar, Para-Medical Staff Head, North West Zone.
The paramedical staff dealing with the patients every day gets exposed to all kinds of infections and despite this, no precautionary facility is provided to the staff. The over 265 ambulances have as many as 1,500 staff working in different shifts but they are not provided with the basic safety equipment such as hand gloves and masks.
"If they do not ask for the kits, how can we provide it?" says Laxman Singh Rana, Operations Head, CATS. "We have not yet provided the kits but now since this has been mentioned, we will look into the issue. No one ever came to us asking for a safety kit," he added.
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