108 Ambulance betrays doctor at last!

Cuttack: Healthcare facility failures have become so commonplace that it now seems like a systemic betrayal. Uncannily ironical it may be, a doctor from Cuttack, MS Ojha was the latest to get crushed under the crumbling healthcare services. Fifty-three-year-old Ojha who suddenly fell ill sought medical assistance asking his wife to arrange a carriage to the hospital. A helpless Rajashree Mishra, frantically fell back upon the ambulance service to shift her husband to the medical. However, urgency went unheard, as the call centre executive of the government ambulance service went on seeking information to complete his paperwork in complete disregard to the criticality while Ojha hung on to his life with his finger nails.

A distraught Rajashree then sought the help of prepaid taxi for which she had forgotten to bring money in the urgency of the moment. However, an unrelenting on-duty constable blatantly refused to help even though Rajashree offered her gold bangles in exchange.

Later, she booked a taxi asking a nearby autorickshaw driver to pay the money for her.

But Rajashree hardly realised amid her frantic run from pillar to post, she actually had run out of time. Ojha had passed!

“The 108 Ambulance took 10 minutes and the prepaid taxi another 10 – those 20 minutes took away my husband from me,” said Rajashree, trying hard not to breakdown by fighting her tears with short gasps.

“When I called up for an ambulance, they asked me my ward number. Even though my father was suffocating, I asked him our ward number. Whatever he could speak, I went back on the phone. Even though I pleaded them urgency, they asked me to hold the line. They kept me waiting for 15 minutes only to say that they have no ambulances available,” said Ojha’s daughter Shradhas Priya Ojha.

“A complaint has been filed and we will conduct an inquiry and required action will be taken against the on-duty constable at the pre-paid taxi centre,” said Bijaykrushna, IIC, GRP.

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