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With few checks in place for regulation, ambulances fleece desperate COVID-19 patients

NEW DELHI: There have been complaints of ambulances charging Covid patients as much as a flight to Europe to cover distances as small as 10-15 kilometres. Yet, few state governments, barring Punjab and Maharashtra, have stepped in to regulate charges. Even where caps have been fixed, there have been instances of their being flouted.



The Maharashtra government was forced to step in towards the end of June after several cases came to light at the peak of the pandemic in Mumbai of people being forced to pay up to Rs 30,000 for an ambulance to ferry them 10-15 km, roughly Rs 3,000 per km. In Pune, a Covid patient was charged Rs 8,000 for 7 km within the city in the last week of June.



Similar complaints have been pouring in from other states. A Bangalore resident was charged Rs 15,000 to transport his 54-year-old mother to a private hospital less than 6-km away. In Kolkata, private ambulances are charging Rs 6,000-8,000 for ferrying Covid patients for about 5km.

To add to it, many private ambulance services were charging Rs 3,000 extra for PPE kit for the driver and helper and for disinfecting the ambulance. In Hyderabad, a person who hired a private ambulance to shift his uncle from a hospital in Nizampet to Gandhi Hospital in Secunderabad 20 km away was charged Rs 11,000 by a private operator. According to the patient’s relatives, there was no mechanical ventilator or trained paramedic in the ambulance.

The WHO recommends at least one ambulance per 100,000 population. Barring a handful of states, most state-funded ambulance services more than meet this minimum standard. If the private operators and private hospital ambulances are counted, the availability of ambulances in most states would be about one or more for every 50,000 population. For instance, in Pune there is one state-funded ambulance for every 31,000 and in Chandigarh one for every 33,000.

In Bengaluru, however, there is just one per roughly 1.4 lakh and this shortage has hit the city hard during the current Covid surge. Of the 71 ambulances operated by a state-funded agency, initially, only 23 were assigned for transport of Covid patients. At least a dozen persons were reported to have died waiting for an ambulance. This has led to the Karnataka home minister announcing an addition of 400, which would bring availability to one per 21,000. The government has not set a cap on private ambulances though it is being discussed, said BH Anil Kumar, Commissioner of Bengaluru’s municipal corporation.

In most states, ambulance operators have hiked rates. In Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh, ambulance operators who charged Rs 10 per kilometre in pre-covid times, have now increased it to Rs 13 per km. Also, in Jharkhand, Maruti van ambulances that used to charge Rs 500 per trip for distances up to 10 km, now charge Rs 900.

In Bihar too, private ambulances are charging at least five to ten times the normal charge. “Attendants have no option but to pay whatever they ask for. Forget Covid-19 patients, even for carrying normal patients, they ask about symptoms and if someone has cough or cold, they will charge whatever they want,” said a health activist, Mukesh Hissariya.

Even post regulation, in Pune, an ambulance operator charged a patient Rs 8,000 and demanded Rs 1,500 more for cost of PPE kit though the charges were capped at Rs 900. When an FIR was filed by the Regional Transport Office (RTO) against the operator under section 420 IPC for cheating, it was found that the operator was running an ambulance service illegally by converting vehicles meant to be used only as mobile clinics.

In West Bengal, a person was forced to pay Rs 1.4 lakh to transport a Covid patient over 300 km, from Durgapur to Gaya. On the victim’s complaint, Burdwan RTO intervened to ensure that Rs 1 lakh was returned. But before further action could be taken, the operator fled with the ambulance and an FIR was registered. While stories abound of people across the country being fleeced by ambulance operators, few have been able to file a complaint or follow up the issue.

In contrast, in states like Himachal Pradesh, Kerala and Goa, transport of covid patients is by state-funded ambulance services free of cost. In Odisha, along with state ambulances, the government had tied up with private hospitals to provide their ambulances to Covid patients for free, with the government picking up the tab.

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