EMRI Green Health Services issues clarification on Karnataka's ambulance 'scam'

Bengaluru: EMRI Green Health Services, the company operating the 108 ambulances in the state, has issued a statement in response to a DH story published on Monday about ambulance service operations in Karnataka, clarifying its motive of shifting "non-critical cases".

Hanumanth R G, the CEO of the company, said, "In both cases recorded in the paper, my Regional Manager gave the approval to allow long distance only after the doctor approved this based on patients' conditions. But I agree that shifting the patient five-six times was incorrect on our part".

In a letter to DH, he claimed that patients who are critical will usually not be given the double dispatch treatment but patients would be shifted to another ambulance mid-way if they need to be shifted to an advanced life support ambulance and to avoid driver fatigue over long distances. However, both the cases of multiple dispatch recorded in the story were critical.

Hanumanth noted that the company's emergency protocol does not permit for a long distance trip and the patient needs to be shifted to the nearest government hospital.

He wrote that this is also done as the company cannot afford to have a local ambulance engaged for a longer duration away from its base location because people there might not be able to find one if needed. However, they allowed the Chitradurga-Bengaluru trip "on humanity grounds and looking at the poor condition of patient and attenders".

He also claimed that no additional costs are incurred by double dispatches as payments are not based on number of cases or kilometres run. "We don't get anything from misusing the system. We will correct any lacuna henceforth but we are doing our best to help people with the free service."