Hyderabad: While the Odisha incident, wherein a man carried the dead body of his wife for about 10 km, has created a sensation in the country, Telangana too does not have free ambulance services for shifting dead bodies from hospitals to the villages of the deceased.
Taking advantages of the situation of the kin of the deceased, ambulance drivers in the city exploit them, charging anywhere between Rs 5,000 and Rs 15,000, depending on the distance from major hospitals in the city like Osmania General Hospital, Gandhi Hospital, NIMS, Niloufer etc.
Approximate charges for shifting dead bodies from Hyderabad to various places.
Exploitation by ambulance drivers and some staff of mortuaries starts with the completion of post-mortem – from the time of placing a white cloth on the body. The two-and-half meter cloth is sold for Rs 800 to Rs 1,000. Besides, the mortuary staff usually demand Rs 1,000 to Rs 1,500 for chemicals to prevent the body from decomposing.
Private ambulances operators charge per kilometer, including the return trip, or fixed rates to some localities in districts. Ambulance operators at Gandhi Hospital charge as per the distance.
Mr A. Narender, an ambulance operator at Gandhi Hospital, said they charged Rs 10 per kilometre without a freezer and Rs 12 per kilometre with freezers. “We charge for return journey too as we need to return to Hyderabad empty,” he said.
At Osmania Hospital, ambulance operators exploit families of deceased persons based on their status – Rs 10,000 and above apart from an additional Rs 2000 for the freezer.
The Health minister had told the media at the Secretariat earlier, while launching the free ambulance service for shifting dead bodies four months ago, that as many as 50 ambulances would be launched soon. But so far there has been no improvement in the “Mortuary Ambulance” scenario.
