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Private ambulance services boom

Sayeda Akter
Private ambulance services have been thriving in Dhaka in recent years, as the hospitals in the city do not have enough vehicles to carry critically ill patients and bodies.
In recent years, a number of private ambulance companies have been established around hospitals and clinics.
According to industry sources, currently around fifty private ambulance service providers are operating in the capital, a significant rise from only a few companies 10 years ago.
Among these, there are companies with only a handful of vehicles, as well as companies with as many as 15 ambulances or more.
Alif Ambulance Service, one of the oldest private ambulance service providers in the capital, has 16 ambulances for carrying patients and bodies.
Momin Ali, the owner of Alif Ambulance Service, said the private ambulance service started booming in past five years.
He said he started his business as private ambulance service provider in 1993 with a very small investment in only one ambulance.
"I started with the aim to meet the unfulfilled demand for ambulance service in the capital to some extent and my initiative was highly appreciated at that time," he said, adding that
"Since inception the sector has been growing gradually
until five years ago. In past five years it has grown rapidly," he added.
Alif is one of the biggest ambulance service providers in the capital and is planning to establish a private clinic in the future.
The ambulance fare ranges from Tk 600 to Tk 1200 inside the capital, according to the industry sources.
Besides private ambulance service providers, Anju-Man-e Mofidul Islam, a trustee organisation, and Al Markazul Islam! Ambulance Service, a subsidiary of a local NGO, are also operating in the capital.
Al Markazul Islami Ambulance Service is the largest service with 34 ambulances and a freezer to carry dead bodies.
Imranuzzaman, director of Al Markazul, said carrying bodies inside the capital is free of cost for poor people while to carry bodies outside the capital payment for the fuel and other expenses is required.
He also said that they take donations (grants) from rich people in place of fare for renting their service.
Apart from the private ambulance companies, around 15 individual operators provide
ambulances sendees inside the Dhaka Medical College Hospital premises, as weU as in almost every hospital and clinics in the capital.
The sector is faced with some difficulties, as well. Industry people complained that getting licenses from Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) is troublesome.
Industry' insiders also complained that the hospital staff and ward boys demand bribe for taking patients and dead bodies to the ambulance.
sayeda@thedailystar.net