“The software is ready, rates have been fixed by the Transport and Health Department. We will soon launch it. This will be first of its kind in the country by any government to bring ambulances under one platform,” a senior official with the Information and Technology Department told The Indian Express.
The ambulances will be added in the Yatri Sathi app, which is a state government app to book taxis and cabs, he said. The decision comes amid numerous complaints from the public about exorbitant costs and unavailability of ambulances during critical times.
The platform will bring together all 15,000 ambulances in the state under a single platform, allowing users to track the ambulance’s location and choose from various types of ambulances, including those equipped with oxygen and ventilators. However, trauma care ambulances will not be included in the initial phase.
“As a pilot project, we will start from Kolkata but it is for the whole of Bengal. We have to ensure adequate numbers of ambulances are on board so that anyone who wants to book an ambulance from anywhere in the state can do that at a fixed rate,” said an official.
A meeting between the officials of the IT, Health and Transport departments, ambulance providers, and other stakeholders is scheduled on Thursday to discuss further details of the initiative.
However, convincing ambulance owners and providers to join the platform could be a challenge. “The idea is people who require medical emergency services and want to book an ambulance will be able to do it at the click of a button just like booking a taxi,” said an officer.
The initiative is likely to draw flak from ambulance service providers due to the fixed rates imposed by the government.
“See this will help people who need urgent ambulance services and also ambulance providers will also have more work to do,” added the official.
There have been many instances in the state where people had to physically carry patients after being refused service by ambulance service providers. In November 2023, a 25-year-old woman had to be carried on shoulders for 10km to a Malda block hospital after public carriers, from ambulance to toto rickshaws, refused the journey due to bad road conditions.
In another incident, a man allegedly travelled in a bus with his five-month-old son’s body in a bag as he couldn’t pay for an ambulance in Kaliaganj. The man, Ashim Debsharma, had claimed that he travelled in a public bus with the body for 200 kilometres in the North Dinajpur, as he couldn’t pay Rs 8,000 as demanded by an ambulance driver for taking him home in Kaliaganj town from Siliguri.
In January 2023 a similar incident was reported in Jalpaiguri district of West Bengal when a man had to carry his mother’s body on his shoulders after an ambulance demanded Rs 3,000 from him. The man, identified as Ram Prasad Dewan, walked for about 50 kilometres from Jalpaiguri Medical College and Hospital to his residence under Kranti block in Jalpaiguri district with his elderly father.
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