Fearing infection, emergency patients shunning 108 ambulances

Hubballi: While Bengaluru is facing a huge shortage of ambulances, several districts in the state have a problem of different kind: Many general emergency patients are shunning the 108 service out of fear of contracting Covid-19.

Officials said calls to Arogya Kavacha, the health service which runs 108 ambulances, have fallen – by as much as 25% – after the outbreak and especially over the past couple of months.

The state has a total 711 ambulances of which only 192 are dedicated to ferry Covid-19 patients. The rest are used for general emergencies – non-Covid-19 cases such as labour pain, stomach pain and snakebite victims. Arogya Kavacha officials say previously, they used to receive about 13,000 calls a day, but now it has fallen to below 10,000.

Hanumanth RG, Karnataka state head for 108 Arogya Kavacha GVK EMRI, said immediately after Covid-19 broke, calls to 108 health services dropped by 7% across the state.

“In March and April this year, we got about 12,000 calls and from June the drop was even more drastic,” Hanumanth said. “In June, we got an average 9,061 calls per day, while in July its 8,932 calls per day till date.”

He went on to say, “The feedback from districts is that people are reluctant to use the ambulance for fear of contracting the virus. They are under the wrong impression that all ambulances are being used to transport Covid-19 patients. The truth is only a fraction of our ambulances are dedicated for Covid-19 patients. In any case, we sanitise each ambulance regularly as per protocol.”

Mohammed Shafi Dafedar, regional manager for 108 Arogya Kavacha, said calls from Belagavi, Dharwad, Gadag, Haveri and Koppal had reduced.

“We are trying to convince people that dedicated Covid ambulances are not being used for non-Covid patients, but people are still afraid. Calls have dropped from between 20% to 25%,” Dafedar said.