Procurement of ambulances stuck in ‘evaluation’ stage

JAMMU: Nine years after Jammu and Kashmir started the process of equipping hospitals with critical care ambulances (CCAs), it is still stuck at the ‘technical evaluation’ stage as two previous Chief Ministers Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti failed to take any decision during their tenure.

Tribune News Service

Jammu, July 10

Nine years after Jammu and Kashmir started the process of equipping hospitals with critical care ambulances (CCAs), it is still stuck at the ‘technical evaluation’ stage as two previous Chief Ministers Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti failed to take any decision during their tenure.

More than 100 CCAs were proposed to be procured for the deployment in the militancy infested state, but due to red-tapism, patients, including militancy victims, have been deprived of the CCAs. The plan was first announced in 2009 by the then NC-Congress government. At present, there are 900 ambulances deployed across the state in different health institutions, but these lack basic life support equipment such as oxygen, emergency drugs and trained para-medics. Nearly two dozen CCAs deployed in the state are not fully utilised due to manpower shortage and poor maintenance. Most of the critical patients admitted to Government Medical College, Jammu and Srinagar, are dependent on private-run CCAs that charge anything between Rs 30,000 to Rs 50,000 for shifting patients outside the state.

“Every government has failed to procure CCAs,” said a senior doctor at Government Medical College and Hospital.

Militancy, road accidents and natural calamities are major killers apart from natural causes and victims lose their life before reaching the hospitals for tertiary care. Dr Pawan Kotwal, Principal Secretary Health and Medical Education, said the government had directed J&K Medical Suppliers Corporation Limited (JKMSCL) to speed up the procurement process so that the CCAs were introduced at the earliest in the state.

“There is a proposal to add nearly 60 CCAs in the initial phase to the existing vehicles available. We are taking up the issue on a priority basis so that the process is completed soon,” said Dr Kotwal. Despite Rs 2,500 crore annual budget for the health sector and per capita spending under the Plan, non-Plan and Centrally sponsored schemes, there is a shortage of CCAs across the state.

Inderjeet Singh, Managing Director, JKMSCL, said, “The procurement process for the CCAs which involves tendering phase has been completed and it is now going through the technical evaluation stage. The procurement process will start soon”.

The Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways had already released Rs 13.47 crore in 2016-17 for the procurement of 130 CCAs.