Patient fails to get ambulance in Odisha Health Minister’s home district

A patient had to move to the district headquarters hospital in Odisha's Sonepur on a rickshaw trolley after failing to get an ambulance.

The incident was reported from Binika in Sonepur, which incidentally is the home district of Odisha Health Minister Niranjan Pujari.

As per reports, a labourer named Halu Naik (38) fell ill and collapsed while working on Thursday. His friends contacted the ambulance, but allegedly failed to get one for Halu.

Failing to get an ambulance, his friends took Halu to Binika medical on a rickshaw trolley.

The fact that a patient could not get an ambulance in the home district of the Health minister itself, made many heads turn with many terming the incident as the height of negligence and government apathy.

"We kept calling for the 108 ambulance but it didn't arrive for long. Not willing to waste time, we took Halu in a rickshaw trolley to the hospital," said a relative of the patient, Anil Meher.

“We never expected the ambulance to arrive on time too. In a hospital where there are almost no doctors, expecting an ambulance to arrive on time is asking too much,” he added.