Few ambulances with critical care a concern

There are 2,287 ambulances registered with the transport department. Of these, 265 are permanent ambulances under the Centralised Accident and Trauma Services (CATS) fleet.

The shortage of ambulances with ventilators has emerged as a concern amid the ongoing coronavirus disease wave in the Capital, with a large number of critical patients needing life support while being taken from their homes to hospitals, or from one medical facility to another in search of a bed.

The shortage of ambulances with ventilators translates to critically ill patients sometimes having to wait, officials and patients said. In picture - Covid-19 patient on oxygen support waits in an ambulance. (PTI)

There are 2,287 ambulances registered with the transport department. Of these, 265 are permanent ambulances under the Centralised Accident and Trauma Services (CATS) fleet. The remaining are operated by private hospitals and private service providers. The state government has also temporarily augmented the fleet of CATS with around 400 more ambulances.

“Of the total number of ambulances functional in Delhi, 25 CATS ambulances have ventilators and, at this point, and less than 125 private ones have ventilators,” said the senior official who asked not to be named.

The shortage of ambulances with ventilators translates to critically ill patients sometimes having to wait, officials and patients said. Since people often cannot wait, they take the risk of ferrying critical patients to hospitals in ambulances with high-oxygen flow systems. This becomes very risky, said Narendra Lakra, head of the Delhi CATS Ambulance Union.

“We come across a high number of cases in which a patient, who is already admitted in a hospital, becomes critical and needs to be moved to a ventilator. But then there is a shortage of vacant ventilators in hospitals too. So, the patient has to be taken to another hospital where a ventilator is available. How do you do that without an ambulance that has a ventilator system?” Lakra said.

What makes things more difficult is that earlier, an ambulance used to take one to two hours to pick up a patient and finally get relieved after hospital admission. Now, with a crisis of beds, the waiting time in hospitals has increased, officials said. A government spokesperson did not comment on the matter.