There has been no regulation and no monitoring on the fare structure of private ambulances operating from North Bengal Medical College and Hospital (NBMCH) and the Siliguri District Hospital (SDH).

NBMCH authorities have said they are planning to seek intervention from the administration and the transport department to fix a uniform fare chart for private ambulances.

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Questions have come up over the delayed “wakeup call” on the part of the authorities, as the ambulances have been operational in this manner for years now.

An incident in which a Kaliaganj resident, Asim Deb Sharma, was compelled to carry his six-month-old son’s body wrapped in a bag and travel around 200 km on Sunday by a bus from Siliguri has brought the focus back on the issue. Mr Deb Sharma said he failed to pay the Rs 8000 demanded by an ambulance.

The incident has triggered a row, with Opposition leaders questioning the health infrastructure in the state.

The NBMCH and the SDH do not have a hearse of their own to ferry bodies from the hospital to destinations.

NBMCH patient welfare committee chairman Gautam Deb said he just came to know that the principal referral health institute did not have such a vehicle.

Secretary of the Sushrutanagar Social Ambulance Pariseba Society Santu Ghosh, on the other hand, denied that Mr Deb Sharma had approached them.

“The person you are talking about did not approach us for the ambulance,” Mr Ghosh said today. According to him, around 60 ambulances operate daily from the NBMCH.

“We charge Rs 25 per km,” Mr Ghosh said, adding that an extra Rs 500 was being charged to ferry a body.

There are categories of ambulances–for critical patients with attendants, oxygen support, and air-conditioned.

Both Mr Deb and NBMCH Superintendent Dr Sanjay Mallik said the growing number of ambulances parked on the premises had become a problem.

“The ambulances which remain parked here are private and the number is going up. These are supposed to drop patients and leave, which they do not do. We will discuss the issue in the committee meeting on 17 May,” Mr Deb said.

Neither the NBMCH nor the SDH has any specific data on ambulances.

“We have already requested the administration to shift most of the ambulances from the NBMCH campus.

We cannot intervene to prepare the fare charts for the private operators, but with the intervention of the transport department, the chart should be displayed according to the distance,” said Dr Mallik. He added that the NBMCH would send a report to the health department on the issue.

The transport department said it will hold a meeting with the ambulance operators and the NBMCH authorities tomorrow.

Meanwhile, NBMCH authorities today shrugged off responsibility for the incident Kaliaganj man incident.

Mr Deb Sharma’s son had been suffering from septicaemia and pneumonia and was admitted to the the paediatric intensive care unit (PICU), where he died on Saturday night.

“We have a patient help desk which is functional round the clock. They did not inform the help desk or the ward office as they needed a hearse. The help desk is run by a voluntary organization, which has such a vehicle. The NBMCH does not have any hearse,” Mr Mallik said.

Mr Deb Sharma has said he had also dialled 102 to call an ambulance, which provides free service to pregnant women preand post-delivery and for children up to one year old if they are to be taken to government hospitals for treatment.

A driver of such an ambulance Dilip Roy said the vehicles provide the service free of cost. Twelve such ambulances provide services at the NBMCH.

Mr Deb, also the Siliguri Mayor, said the help desk, ward office and the nursing staff concerned of the PICU had not been informed by Mr Deb Sharma about his problem.

“We have taken the incident seriously. In the proposed meeting, the medical superintendent of the SDH will also be present to sort out the issue. I came to know only today that the NBMCH does not have any hearse.

The Siliguri Municipal Corporation has two hearses; we want to create a joint mechanism to help such people in the future,” he said.