It was a heart-breaking sight to see a grief-stricken father carrying the dead body of his son on his shoulders, while riding pillion on a two-wheeler for 90 km to reach his native village, as an ambulance turned out to be unaffordable.
This is the latest in the series of incidents at Sri Venkateswara Ramnarain Ruia (SVRR) Government General Hospital, which has reportedly earned the dubious distinction of being ‘patient-unfriendly’.
A nine-year-old tribal boy Jaswa was admitted for treatment of a liver disorder and succumbed past midnight of Monday. When his father, Narasimhulu, working as a gardener in a mango orchard near Rajampeta, tried to shift the body to his native Chitvel village, 90 km from Tirupati, the ambulance driver reportedly demanded a whopping ₹20,000.
As all efforts to convince the cartel of drivers failed, Narasimhulu, whose earns about ₹4,000 a month, appealed to his orchard owner to depute an ambulance from outside. The hostile drivers of the in-house cartel not only chased away the outsider, but also reportedly manhandled Narasimhulu.
Overcome by emotion, the disturbed father carried the body of his son on his shoulder, hopped on to a motorcycle to travel all the way to his native village.
The incident created furore on Tuesday, when social activists and political leaders congregated at the hospital to protest against the nonchalant attitude of the hospital management.
Blame game
TDP parliamentary constituency in-charge G. Narasimha Yadav and former MLA M. Sugunamma blamed the State government of having failed to monitor and implement the rules.
BJP spokesperson G. Bhanuprakash Reddy demanded a crackdown on the ‘inhuman’ ambulance cartel. Congress leader P. Naveen Kumar Reddy appealed to the TTD to donate and run free ambulances for the poor.
Jana Sena Party in-charge K. Kiran Rayal dubbed it an example of the ‘ineptitude and waywardness’ ruling by the State. CITU district Secretary K. Murali sought to know the status of reports submitted by committees that probed similar incidents in the past.
Report sought
Calling the event ‘unfortunate’, Tirupati MP M. Gurumoorthy asked the Collector to put a system in place to prevent recurrence of such incidents. When contacted by The Hindu, Revenue Divisional Officer (Tirupati) V. Kanakanarasa Reddy said he had asked for a report from the hospital Superintendent. Mr. Reddy, who rushed to the hospital to probe the incident, inquired about the absence of ‘Mahaprasthanam’ vehicles.
The three ‘Mahaprasthanam’ vehicles sanctioned to the hospital meant to ferry bodies free of cost to their destination, were nowhere to be seen. There were no display boards mentioning the tariff details, nor were the phone numbers to contact in case of a grievance. Four persons were taken into custody for their alleged involvement in the incident.
