BHUBANESHWAR: On September 1, a woman in Rayagada district gave birth to a baby while being taken to the Kalyansinghpur hospital in a private vehicle. Her family members said time ran out even as they frantically called both 102 and 108 ambulance services for about two hours. Helpless, as they were trying to shift the woman groaning in pain in a private vehicle, the baby was born.
This was not an isolated case. A few days before on August 29, a similar incident took place in Umerkote area of the nearby Nabarangpur district, the delivery happening to a 30-year-old woman inside an autorickshaw.
Even as the media coverage of these two incidents evoked lukewarm public response, the recent Dana Majhi episode in Kalahandi district followed by a woman with her dead child being allegedly refused a drop to her village has brought to public focus the scarcity or failure of ambulance services in the state.
Ambulance services not being available in remote villages because of poor connectivity and women often depending on mid-wives for delivery is not an uncommon sight in Odisha. Nearly 40 per cent babies, health department sources say, are still born in the state without the help of qualified doctors or nurses.
Nearly four years back when the two state wide ambulance services, 108 (meant for carrying emergency patients) and 102 (to carry pregnant women and sick new borns), were introduced with central financial assistance under the National Health Mission (NHM) programme, most people particularly the women welcomed the dawn of a new era for institutional delivery.
But Dana Majhi incident of the helpless tribal village folk carrying his wife s body on his shoulders in the dead of the night to his village, about 60 km away from the district headquarters hospital at Bhawanipatna has all but thrown water on the public trust on the ambulance services. The Malkangiri incident, also covered in national and international media, has all but added fuel to the raging fire.
The ambulance services are meant for carrying patients and not dead bodies. We receive around 10,000 calls a day. Sometimes people call us just when the patients become serious. Every telephone call has an average 149 others waiting for ambulance to reach them. Under the circumstance, it is bound to be late sometimes. We understand the plight of people, but we are helpless also, said a functionary of the 102 ambulance service.
He said there are 420 ambulances under 108 number and 464 under 102 category. The government guidelines specify one ambulance per one lakh person. We have sufficient vehicles. Only at places due to work pressure and connectivity there may have been delays, he said.
Health minister Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak said: We are committed to giving best services to the people. Certain incidents may have caused public outcry. We have ordered an inquiry into these incidents. Action will be taken after submission of the report.