Patients’ wait for 108 ambulance gets longer

Tribune News Service

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Amritsar, September 21

The facility of the toll free number 108 is available to requisition an ambulance in an emergency, but residents complain that they have to wait for long before their call is answered by the staff manning the helpline.

Residents of areas near Mahawa village faced a similar problem yesterday. They complained that nobody answered their repeated calls at the helpline. Even a senior official of the Health Department admitted that once he had to wait for almost 10 minutes before the staff at the helpline answered his phone.

A resident Sukhwinder Singh said, “I happened to witness an accident of the two motorcycle-borne persons near Verka Chowk. When I tried calling 108 the response was that my call was in the queue and I had to wait for a long time. It took almost half an hour for the ambulance to reach the spot despite a vehicle always being stationed near a prominent private hospital close to Verka Chowk.”

Residents demanded that the government should ensure that emergency calls for help were answered immediately and vehicles sent so that patients reached hospital in time.

Civil Surgeon, Dr Pardeep Chawla, said he would contact service providers to discuss the problem. “If need arises I will take up the matter with senior state functionaries as the government is paying to the company for providing services.”

Jitendra K Sharma, project manager, Zitika Healthcare Limited, which is providing toll free service in the state, said, “There is no such problem. We can attend 60 calls at one time.”

He said, “Sometimes it may result in a delay due to technical reasons as all calls to the toll-free number are routed through the government-owned BSNL network.”