KATHMANDU: Bikesh Bajracharya, a resident of Babarmahal in Kathmandu, dialed no 102 to call an ambulance as the health of his 47-year-old father, a heart patient, deteriorated.
However, contemplating that it was a bluff call, the person, who received the call disconnected it asking Bikesh not to ‘fool’ him. The conversation lasted for a mere 24 seconds, according to Bikesh.
Bikesh has no option than to dial 102, an ambulance operated by Nepal Ambulance Service, an NGO, when his father suffered a cardiac attack for the second time in a row.
“I had no option than to hire a cab. I took my father to Civil Hospital, Minbhawan,” Bikesh said. After an hour or so, my father breathed his last.
“Had the person who received my call responded to my call seriously, I could have saved my father,” a heartbroken Bikesh told Khabarhub saying that he ‘wasted’ his time to look for a taxi.
However, the Nepal Ambulance Service, refuted Bikesh’s allegation. Insisting anonymity, a staffer at the ambulance call center told Khabarhub that such cases never happen even though he acknowledged the fact that they often receive such bluff calls. “I fact, we are extremely disappointed by the incident,” he said.
The employee said they made every effort to confirm whether the staffer had ignored the call. “We even scrutinized the CCTV footage, but did not get any clue,” he added saying that they do not make such mistakes.
Meanwhile, the Executive Chief of the ambulance service Amit Joshi concurred with his staff’s claims saying they do not neglect such calls. “On the basis of the CCTV footage in between 11 to 12 pm, we did not get any trace of any negligence from the part of the employee,” he said.
Joshi said he carries out the case study every day. “We even inquire about our services to the patients,” Joshi said adding that they have prepared a questionnaire to ask with the patients and their relatives about the service of the ambulance.
Comment