Thiruvananthapuram: As the lack of regular checks on life support systems in ambulances came to light once again with the death of a patient at Alappuzha following oxygen cylinder leak, in a knee jerk reaction the Kerala Medical Services Corporation (KMSC) checked the fitness of all its ‘108’ Ambulance fleet on a war footing last night.
It 2011 the state capital witnessed a similar mishap, that too involving an 108-ambulance. Two persons were killed after the oxygen cylinder in the ambulance leaked an exploded while taking a child to a hospital at Kallara-Pangode on the rural parts of the state capital. The mishap at Champakkulam in Alappuzha on Wednesday killed one patient and caused injury to couple of persons.
According to sources, while the motor vehicle rules mandate annual fitness test for ambulances, it was limited only to the fitness of the vehicle and the medical facilities are not checked. The health authorities also did not have any mandate to check the medical facilities in ambulances.
In a knee-jerk reaction of Wednesday’s mishap, the KMSC carried out a check of almost all its 40 odd ambulances that were deployed in Thiruvananthapuram and Alappuzha districts.
Roughly the number of ambulances in the state would be over 10,000. It includes around 400 ambulances attached to the state health services department. There is no standardisation of rates or facilities of ambulances. Though the centre had brought out a National Ambulance Code prescribing standards for ambulance, it was not yet enforced.
