SATURDAY, JULY 27, 2024
Lourdes Monaliza D’Costa Curchorem
The number 108 is used as an emergency number for ambulance services. When it comes to medical emergencies, prompt attention can be the difference between life and death. In countries like Dubai at any given hour, the ambulance locates you in minutes and succeed in giving quick medical care.
Curchorem, a town where development happens in some way or the other its just the contrary. However there are still challenges that need to be addressed such as availability of ambulance in certain areas and the shortage of trained medical personnel. Just recently, in the wee hours of Sunday, my Dad suffered an acute myocardial infarction.
When a quick call was made to 108, it was connected to the Panjim control room from which they directed the nearest health centre to provide an ambulance. But unfortunately, due to some petty reason the nearest Health centre could not provide one.
Eventually when they managed to send another ambulance from the remote areas of Sanguem, it took them more than 20 minutes. But when they showed up, the medical representative informed that it was too late to save him and refused to take him to the nearest health centre that was just 5 minutes away. The reason given was because there was no staff available on a weekend to give the medical treatment.
The holiday of the hospital staff cost us a life.
Now in this given situation, had the ambulance arrived earlier then maybe the patient could have been saved. Why are ambulances left unattended at the Health Centre especially at wee hours when they are required the most? Why are sufficient resident doctors not available at the Health centre? Do you expect the patient to survive while the ambulance takes its own sweet time to reach out? There are many questions that remain unanswered. This is a major concern that needs to be attended to avoid further inconvenience in times of need.
