Three persons were taken into custody on Wednesday after a private ambulance driver was roughed up by a local cartel of ambulance drivers at SVR Ruia Government General Hospital the previous day.
A 75-year-old patient was admitted to Ruia on complaint of paralysis and as his condition worsened, his family members decided to take him home on Tuesday.
According to the police, the ambulance driver, who was part of the cartel, reportedly demanded ₹8,500 for the short travel, for which another driver charged ₹3,500. The 15 to 20 ambulances that are always “unofficially” parked in front of the hospital not only prevented the entry of the ‘outsider’, but also allegedly roughed up the driver. As the tiff continued for 40 minutes, the patient died on the road, causing outrage among the public.
“I came to know of the incident after the drivers staged a dharna,” Ruia Superintendent S. Bharathi told the media here on Wednesday.
Superintendent of Police (Tirupati Urban) Avula Ramesh Reddy announced that three persons had been picked up for questioning and warned the drivers not to play with lives in the name of their livelihood. He suggested introduction of prepaid ambulance services and extension of RTC buses up to Maternity and Ruia hospitals to solve the issue.
