People using bamboo baskets to carry patients
JUMLA, June 28: Service seekers have been badly hit after the only ambulance of Malikobota Health Post in Jumla went out of order. In lack of budget to repair it, the ambulance has been stationed at Jumla-based office of Nepal Red Cross Society. The vehicle had sustained damages after colliding with a public bus of Madhyapaschim Yatayat.
Lack of ambulance service has enraged the locals who have no other means to reach to the health facilities during emergency. The village is nearly 50 kilometers away from the district headquarters.
“When we fall sick, we have no means to get to the hospital. The only ambulance we had is out of order,” said Dil Bahadur Rawat of Malikobota village. He added that women and children are likely to succumb to illnesses more easily. “Delivery cases are very sensitive.
How shall we take our women and babies to health centers when we have no ambulance? But they say there is no budget to repair the ambulance,” he lamented.
Locals have demanded prompt repairing of the ambulance and more health facilities for them. They said that a huge number of people have already died untimely in lack of proper health care. “Our place is the most neglected one. We are never remembered by the government. Our grievances never fall in their ears,” Rawat said. “We are now using bamboo baskets to carry patients during emergency. And that is more dangerous,” he added.
Locals of Jumla have been relying on bamboo baskets for carrying human beings much before getting ambulance service. Porters used to carry passengers in the baskets. With road networks become more visible in the district and emergence of more vehicles, their lifestyle has been changing. However, the development has not been sustainable, Rawat noted. “We are deprived of even basic facilities. Even minimum health facilities are still not there for us,” Rawat said.
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