HUBBALLI: The district administration is planning to tie up with Ola and Uber cabs to address the shortage of ambulances to shift Covid-19 patients to hospitals.
The district has 20 dedicated ambulances to carry COVID-19 patients. In Hubballi, seven ambulances have been set aside to take positive patients to hospitals, and three to shift recovered patients to their houses. In Dharwad, there are five ambulances to shift patients to hospitals and two to bring them back home after recovery. Apart from these 17 ambulances, there are three ambulances for corona-related purposes in the taluk headquarters.
In the last seven days, the district has reported 954 positive cases, of which nearly 900 have been shifted to hospitals and Covid care centres. In many cases, patients had to wait for over six hours for ambulances to get shifted to hospitals.
Recently, two assistant sub-inspectors and a police constable (state railway police) were tested positive and they had to spent the whole night on the terrace waiting for the ambulance. "We tested positive on Saturday evening and waited for the ambulance on the terrace of our office. The ambulance reached only the next morning," they said.
In view of such reports coming from parts of the district, the administration decided to tie-up with cab service providers to transport patients to and from hospitals.
Deputy Commissioner Nitesh Patil said: "There are 20 dedicated ambulances in the district and an NGO has agreed to provide three ambulances in a few days. If the number of patients goes up further, we will make use of Ola and Uber cabs to shift them. When we spoke to cab drivers in this regard, they agreed to it."
"As of now, the available ambulances are sufficient to transport patients. If tally goes up in the coming days, we will use cabs. Drivers will be provided with personal protective equipment (PPE) kits and paid on kilometre-basis,” he added.