Free Hearse ambulance remains unused

aaron, Aug 31, 2019, 12:37 PM IST

Mukti hearse ambulance of the city corporation

Mangaluru: The hearse ambulance provided to the government hospital for the use of poor people, to shift a corpse is not being used and instead is gathering dust.

When U T Khader was the health minister, he took special consideration of providing a free facility of transferring a corpse from Wenlock hospital to the house of the deceased and provided an ambulance for this purpose through the U T Fareed foundation. However, the ambulance has ended up unutilized due to the given reason that the health department does not have required funds to run the service. Normally, corpse is not transported in an ambulance. Hence, the relatives of the deceased will have to solely depend upon private ambulances for this facility. But, since this service is expensive, poor people find it a real challenge to avail it. Hence, when Mr Khader was the health minister, he had created the hearse ambulance programme. But now, since the scheme is not being implemented properly, the public is suffering.

Corporation’s Mukti ambulance remains unused

With the aim to provide help to poor people, the corporation introduced the Mukti hearse ambulance in 2017 for the purpose of transporting corpses. It was decided that the service would be managed at a monthly cost of Rs 40,500 which would include the driver’s salary and diesel expenses.

It was decided that the vehicle could travel to 2,000 km per month. If in case the expenses exceeded, bills had to be submitted to the corporation. But nobody knows of the existence of this service. Hence, Mukti hearse ambulance remains unused at the corporation premises. However, even though no corpses are being transported, the monthly decided fee has to be paid nonetheless. Since nobody knows about the existence of the Mukti hearse ambulance service, those in need make no use of it.

Lack of funding

Presently, the hearse ambulance is not getting used. Earlier, a driver was appointed on tender basis. But since the tender the tender period has completed, the hearse ambulance is not being used. Nobody is coming forward for the very reason that it is a corpse transporting vehicle. Amidst this, the department is lacking funds to pay the driver’s salary and fuel expenses. A letter has been written to the government in this regard – Dr| Ramakrishna Rao, District Health and Family Welfare Officer

It costs thousands of rupees to avail private ambulance service

Even though there are government ambulances, they are not being used and hence, poor people are forced to depend upon private ambulances to transport corpses. They decided a particular price per kilometer. Since this is expensive, the public is suffering.

Tender period completed

People in need of a hearse ambulance must call the corporation and inform, then the hearse ambulance service will be provided to them. But the tender period of Mukti hearse ambulance ended in July. Even then, the service has been extended to three months. In the coming days, tender will be issued again and the service will be extended, informed the concerned corporation officials to Udayavani”.