Meghalaya, June 15: Meghalaya will soon get 11 ambulances with life support through the Ministry of Development of the North Eastern Region; these ambulances will help in effectively tackling the second wave of COVID-19.
“I am happy to inform you that through the Ministry of DoNER, we will be getting 11 ambulances with life support,” Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma told reporters after a review meeting convened by the Assembly Speaker on Monday.
He was reacting to the concerns expressed by the opposition Congress over the absence of ambulances with advanced life-saving support systems in the state despite the ongoing pandemic.
Conrad Sangma said that the focus on life support was not there during the fight against the first wave of COVID-19 as it was more of transportation of people and the state was not seeing so many serious cases which needed oxygen support.
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What did Dr Mukul Sangma say in the all-party meet?
Attacking the Meghalaya government’s claims of developing health infrastructure amid its battle against the second wave of COVID-19, the state Congress unit on Monday said none of the districts has ambulances with either basic life support system or advanced life support system.
He said that in view of this, the opposition has demanded the state government to provide ambulances with an advanced life-saving support system so that sufferings and loss of precious lives can be minimized to a large extent.
Dr Mukul, who attended the all-party meet chaired by Meghalaya Speaker Metbah Lyngdoh, had highlighted these issues and also asked the government to make immediate corrections.
Expressing concern over non-operational ICUs, Dr Mukul said that if they were operational, they could have saved precious lives. “We have insisted that all these ICUs and ventilators which are made available to medical infrastructure must be made operational. They were not made operational because to operate an ICU or to incubate a patient you require appropriate training of the medical fraternity whoever is assigned with the task,” said Dr Mukul.
