BHOPAL: Viral videos continue to expose the state of health services in Madhya Pradesh.
The latest video to go viral pertains to a road accident victim youth being carried on a JCB machine to a hospital for the want of an ambulance in Katni district.
The incident happened recently in Barahi area of Katni district when a man identified as Mahesh Barman had to be carried to the hospital by the JCB machine in the absence of ambulance. Two videos of the alleged incident went viral over social media on Tuesday.
"He (Mahesh Barman) had a fractured leg in the accident at Khitauli Road. But with no ambulance being available and three to four auto rickshaw drivers refusing to help, the injured had to be taken to the hospital by my JCB machine," Pushpendra Vishwakarma, the local Janpad Panchayat member and owner of the JCB machine said.
It was in front of Pushpendra's shop that the road accident had happened. When contacted about the matter, a health department official in Katni district, said, "since the agency operating the Dial 108 ambulance has been changed, hence a 108 ambulance in the concerned area wasn't available. They tried to get an ambulance from CHC in Vijayraghavgarh, but owing to delay couldn't get one. There were two ambulances present at the CHC in Barahi, had they rung there, they would have definitely got them. I'll ask the staff to publicise the availability of ambulances at the CHC in Barahi."
But this isn't the first time such a video has exposed the state of health services in the state. Last month, videos of pregnant women being taken on JCB machine in Neemuch, a severely ill woman being taken on a bullock cart in Betul, a pregnant woman being taken in an auto rickshaw in Rewa district, an ailing old man being carried on hand pushed cart in Bhind and a pregnant woman being carried in a similar manner by husband in Damoh, all reportedly for the want of ambulances had gone viral.
Importantly, in April this year, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, at a function, announced the number of ambulances had gone up from 1,445 to 2,052. The number of Advanced Life Support Vehicles also increased from 75 to 167. Basic Life Support Ambulances, whose number was 531, was increased to 835.
Just a month before it in March, researchers at the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Institute of Good Governance and Policy Analysis of the state government, had, however, said the Dial 108 ambulance service -- on which government spends Rs 220 crore a year -- is unable to serve as many as 53 cases daily in each district.
The number of patients who have to resort to private ambulances is 10 lakh a year.