Employees of integrated ‘108’ ambulance service went on a snap strike on Sunday, paralysing emergency response services across Madhya Pradesh.
“We were not even informed about this situation till afternoon,” said chief medical health officer Dr H N Nayak. Hundreds of calls to ‘108’ went unanswered throughout the day and the few that were answered did not give the desired response.
In Bhopal, Rachna Singh, who needed an ambulance for her father after he suffered a cardiac arrest, said: “The call centre kept my call on wait for over five minutes. In the end, they informed that an ambulance was not available.”
In Indore district, around 70 employees of ‘108 Service’ including drivers and paramedical staff remained off work. They alleged that the company has not paid their salaries for over a month. “They could not give us a written assurance on when they will pay us,” said Ram Parmar, one of the striking employees. People were left to their own devices.
