LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA — Some years back, a friend of mine had a medical emergency at one of the local hospitals in Dumaguete. He needed to be taken to Cebu City for further treatment, or risk losing a limb.
Now when such an emergency occurs to anyone, the first consideration would be financial. It is not so cheap to take a patient to Cebu, as close as it seems. At that time, to charter a small plane would have set his family back close to P250,000.
By land, meaning in an ambulance, complete with a nurse and an oxygen tank, it would have cost P125,000 if the Cebu hospital had to pick him up.
I know this because I checked. Don’t ask how much it would have been if a doctor had to come along. Let’s just say it would have cost an arm and a leg.
I should tell you now that I will not call ambulances Patient Transport Vehicles (PTV). By any other name, they are, and will still be ambulances.
Patient Transport Vehicles could be any vehicle not medically equipped that could be used to convey patients in non-emergency situations. If one goes to a hospital with a deep paper cut, he is a patient, but would that be considered an emergency?
am·bu·lance /ˈambyələns/noun. 1. a vehicle specially equipped for taking sick or injured people to and from the hospital, especially in emergencies.
Fortunately for my friend, his family could have afforded the expense but they still wanted to look for alternatives while still ensuring he got the treatment in time, just to save a little bit.
Naturally, that alternative was to have one of the local ambulances in Dumaguete take him to Cebu. In case you didn’t know, the process is not as simple as picking up the phone, and calling for an ambulance. The hospital where he was couldn’t even accommodate him at that time so we had to look at the City. That, too, failed.
In our frustration, another friend sought the help of a barangay chairman friend but even that wasn’t successful because there just weren’t any ambulances available, according to the City.
My friend’s family almost decided on the expensive alternatives when someone, I forgot who it was, said to try one of the neighboring municipalities that may have an ambulance that wasn’t busy.
Sure enough, one of them had an ambulance that was sitting at the municipal hall premises, idle at that time. Considering that it was already dark, my friend’s family didn’t know who to contact for use of the ambulance. By another stroke of luck, they learned that one of the town councilors was their relative. They contacted him and, to make a long story short, calls were made, and permission was secured to use the ambulance.
Wait, that was not the end of it! There was the matter of the driver. He was off, and the town apparently does not pay him for runs like that. So the family agreed to pay the driver.
You would think that definitely was the end, right? No, there is also the matter of the fuel—the family had to buy fuel for the ambulance!
Now, even if this was the bargain alternative, it still wasn’t cheap. Imagine patients who simply do not have that kind of money, or who do not know anyone in any government position. It could very well mean death for the patient.
Before that happened to my friend, I had heard nightmarish stories about ambulance service in Dumaguete or, for that matter, the Province. You may disagree with what I know, and I would say you may be right. But there is no consistency in their service, or in the ease with which the public can avail of their services.
To say there are too many ambulances on the highways of the Province is certainly an overstatement because when you need one, they do not seem to be available. I know this from experience.
And what is this about the non-availability of drivers in the evenings, and the lack of fuel? Why do patients have to pay for the driver and the fuel before the ambulance could even be put in gear, if this is part of the myriad government services they always brag about (not talking about ambulances owned by private hospitals)?
Recently, President Marcos urged the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office to fulfill its commitment to donate two ambulances to each of the local government units in the country. These vehicles are supposedly of models that are easy to repair anywhere, and by any mechanic. Also, spare parts are easily procured in the country. All this sounds very good. Communities could never have enough ambulances with their growing populations.
However, I am of the opinion that it doesn’t matter how many ambulances there are if the LGUs do not design and establish separate systems that would manage and maintain the necessary dispatch and maintenance apparatus for them.
Even more importantly, a budget has to be allocated especially for these ambulances so that patients will not be burdened with the cost of fuel, and having to pay the drivers on the spot.
As long as the PCSO donations continue, LGUs could eventually have fleets of ambulances.
If local leaders really have ambulances as part of their long-range plans, then these things should be discussed. It would only be prudent to do so to avoid the same problems that I mentioned earlier.
We cannot simply be satisfied with the knowledge that PCSO is donating more ambulances if their use by patients in emergencies will be fraught with bureaucracy. What good would a hundred ambulances do if one has to go through almost-impossible hoops when he needed to use one?
If the local leaders expect these PCSO donations to be few and far between, then these actions may not really be necessary. But only they could know that. How wonderful it would be if LGUs did not have to rely on the PCSO to acquire ambulances! As it is, it’s almost like a begging game wherein nothing happens unless the President calls on the PCSO.
There is something else attached to the acquisition of ambulances, or anything else for public use—credit to the politician at the time the donation is given. And they do not know how to say that the credit is not theirs—that they are simply receiving it for the people.
If people wrongly think it was their local leaders responsible for such acquisition, these politicians are just too eager to leave it at that. They scrape every little credit they can get, deserved or not!
If we say we are living in the 21st century, why are we still overjoyed at our government giving us ambulances? All modern societies have had them for a while now, you know?
The way it is in the local scene, ambulances seem to serve as mobile billboards announcing the charitability of politicians, instead of equipment needed to give our sick and injured brethren a chance to survive.
They forget they are not benefactors but simply government servants.
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Author’s email: [email protected]
