Emergency services: No funds to replace old ambulances

29 of 32 vehicles past their reliable operational life.

LAHORE:

Rescue 1122 is appealing for donations for its ambulance fleet, as 29 of its 32 vehicles require new engines, The Express Tribune has learnt.

The standard operating procedures for the Emergency Services of Punjab state that ambulances or their engines must be replaced after three years or 100,000 kilometres, whichever comes first.

The Rescue 1122 service started in Lahore on October 14, 2004, with a fleet of 14 ambulances. The entire fleet was replaced with new ambulances in 2007. These vehicles are still in use four years later and some of them have crossed 200,000 kilometres, said sources in the Rescue 1122 repair and maintenance department. They said that some ambulances had broken down while responding to emergency calls.

Six ambulances in Lahore are completely out of order and out of use. Three are on protocol duty, one each for Nawaz Sharif, Shahbaz Sharif and the Punjab Assembly.

Meanwhile, the number of emergency calls has risen from 90 cases a day on average to 130 a day with the outbreak of dengue, and Rescue 1122 has had to decline some emergency calls because of the non-availability of ambulances, said sources in Rescue 1122.

The sources said that Rescue 1122 had sent a request to the provincial government for funding to replace the engines; the government gave them permission to replace the engines but no funds for this purpose.

“If we are not given funds, the ambulances which are working will go out of order within six months,” a source said.

Rescue 1122 owes various workshops Rs6.4 million for ambulance repairs, the sources said. Before the budget for this fiscal year was announced, Rescue 1122 already owed workshops Rs2.5 million. It was given Rs1.8 million for repairs. “Now the workshops are refusing to repair our vehicles until they get the full payment,” the sources said.

The service started a fund-raising campaign in Ramazan, putting up banners in public places and approaching philanthropists individually. An ambulance costs about Rs6 million.

Punjab Emergency Services Director General Dr Rizwan Naseer told The Express Tribune that he was in contact with the government and was hopeful about getting funds soon. He said Newage Cable and Tika, a Turkish company, had donated an ambulance each to Rescue 1122 and Toyota had indicated it would donate two ambulances. “We have asked them to just donate ambulances rather than give cash,” he said. He said two ambulances had been damaged in accidents, one in Rawalpindi and one in Sahiwal. Two ambulances were burnt during the recent protests against power blackouts. “People shouldn’t attack an ambulance,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 12^th, 2011.