Long distance travel by road is the new norm

People Can’t Afford Air Ambulance Flights

Manju V & Prabin Kalita TNN

Mumbai/Guwahati: 27.04.2020

With a ban on airline flights and train ambulances, long distance travel by road, cooped up in an ambulance, has become the mode of transport for a number of families from non-metros who need to travel to metros for advanced treatment but can’t afford air ambulance flights.

Two families took their cancer patients from Mumbai to Assam, while another had their heart patient moved from a Chennai hospital to Assam. It took three days of almost non-stop travel for the three families to cover the 2,700-odd km distance in a road ambulance. It was a trying trip though the ambulance is typically an air conditioned tempo traveller. It is equipped with a stretcher and ICU equipment along with a few narrow seats for relatives. One of these Assam families travelled soon after the lockdown, only to encounter hurdles in the form of closed petrol pumps and eateries en route.

Another family, which did the Chennai to Assam trip, faced other problems. “We were stopped by the police, first on entering West Bengal for about four hours and then again at the Assam-West Bengal border at Srirampur for about two hours,” said Baharaul Islam, a school teacher in Assam’s Bongaigaon district, who was accompanying his father, a heart patient, who was discharged from Apollo Hospitals, Chennai, on March

30. “They checked our papers and let us go. It was at Kajalgaon near our home when one of the drivers received a call to stop at the nearest civil hospital, where doctors did a check-up and sent us all to home quarantine for 14 days,” said Islam. For the onward journey, they had taken a train ambulance which cost Rs 1.2 lakh as against the Rs 1.6 lakh they paid for the road ambulance. “For the road trip, we had two drivers, who drove for 23 hours a day and we reached home in three days. We were relieved,” he said. The relief of reaching home was short lived for Nitin Vikas (name changed) as his 28-year old sister succumbed to stomach cancer on March 28, two days after they reached home. “At least she spent the last two days with her children. The ambulance left on March 25 from JJ hospital, it drove through the night, we covered 700 kms in less than a day and didn’t encounter any problems en route,” he said.

For the two families who took a road ambulance from Mumbai to Assam with their cancer patients, cost was a big factor. “So we helped them with road ambulance. The road ambulance cost Rs 2 lakh as against Rs 12 lakh for an air ambulance,” said Rahul Muchhal of Accretion Aviation, which operates air ambulances, but arranged the road trip for the families.

“The first trip, on March 27, with a 55-year old male patient undergoing cancer treatment in Tata Memorial was a difficult one, with hardly any petrol pumps open. They also had problem getting food and tea as all outlets along the highways were closed. At one place, the driver’s assistant had to walk 8-10 km for petrol. It took 55-60 hours to complete the trip, with two short breaks, one in Indore and another in Kanpur. But they were relieved to finally be home,” he said.

These days there are other hurdles. Mohit Jain (name changed), a 26-year old software engineer, was hospitalised in the first week of April with swollen legs and mouth ulcers. He decided to head back home to Dholpur in Rajasthan after discharge.

“The ambulance left the hospital around 9pm on April 8 and on April 10, we were passing through Morena in MP, when the police stopped our vehicle,” said Jain. They refused to let the ambulance with Maharashtra registration number pass through Chambal. “Dholpur was about 27kms away at this point. I started walking and covered ten kilometres before I could get the lift,” said Jain.

ALL ABOUT ALTERNATIVES

Two families took their cancer patients from Mumbai to Assam, while another had their heart patient moved from a Chennai hospital to Assam. It took three days of almost non-stop travel for the three families to cover the 2,700-odd km distance in a road ambulance