Staff Reporter
Private ambulances are charging huge fares from members of bereaved families to transport bodies from hospitals as the number of official vehicles available especially at three allied hospitals are insufficient to meet the demand.
According to details collected by media, a large number of private ambulances of various sizes can be witnessed lined-up in front of emergency wards of Holy Family Hospital, Benazir Bhutto Hospital and District Headquarters Hospital in Rawalpindi.
A private ambulance owner, requesting anonymity, said they get a list of “critical” patients every morning from nurses to assess scope of their day to day business. Even, he revealed that ambulance drivers hover around the wards and, as soon as a patient dies, approach the relatives to offer their services.
As a business trick, he said many drivers pretend to be shocked and grieved over the death and even join in weeping with the members of the bereaved family. Khan Bahadur, another driver of a private ambulance stationed at the Holy Family Hospital, said normally we charge Rs 1000 to 1200 to carry bodies in non-air-conditioned ambulances within the city.
In most cases, he said, payment is requested in advance because after reaching the destination it quite often becomes impossible to ask for fare. The biggest sufferers are people from outside the city who have to pay around Rs 4,000 to 5,000 to transport bodies.
During the survey it was learnt that lower staff of the hospitals have started running their own ambulance service because they get on the spot business. Ambulance services of non-governmental organizations and volunteer bodies are not available immediately, or during odd hours.
