State to soon have Critical Care Ambulances in each district

Tahir Mushtaq

JAMMU, Apr 11: After many hurdles finally the Critical Care Ambulance will be visible soon in every district hospital of the state as the health department already issues the tenders for the same.

While talking to TNI Director Health Services, Jammu Dr Madhu Khullar disclosed that previously the court has given the stay order on the purchase of Critical Care Ambulances now as the stay is over we will proceed further and within a period of two month the ambulances will be available is every district hospitals of the state.

She further said that the department has planned to purchase 25 such ambulances for every district hospitals adding that some as per the requirement some emergency hospital are also listed to provide these ambulances.

It is pertinent to mention here that about a year ago the health department had issued tenders to purchase 25 Critical Care Ambulances, but the contractors alleged the department has given the benefits to their good ones. The institutional contractors blaming that the department’s has given the tenders illegally to those who didn’t complete the formalities or were not eligible for filling the tenders.

They also blamed that even there are two tenders filed by the same agency. The intention of the department is to swindle the funds through shabby tender process. The opinion of the experts, who were included in the Purchase Committee, was not given due consideration while framing the NIT conditions, they alleged. Even the representatives from the private firms were unhappy with the conditions during their pre-tender meeting. 

The alliance had registered complaint to the CM’s Grievance Cell on October 21 last year alleging therein that the department had flouted the norms in framing the tender conditions, but didn’t get any positive response. 

The cell forwarded many reminders to the health department about the queries of alliance group, but didn’t get any reply from the department’s officials. The controversy over the purchase of 25 Critical Care Ambulances has not only deferred the purchase unnecessarily but also put the people at disadvantage.

Moreover this project was initiated keeping in mind that the hospitals lacks this ambulance facility owing to which many of the critically injured persons have lost their lives during the past several years. Critical Care Ambulance is equipped with ventilator and monitor which secures safe transfer of critically injured patients to other hospitals for specialized treatment.