A few things about the motorcycle ambulance need explanation. First, how is it possible to carry on a two-wheeler an unconscious or serious-condition patient, who is not in a position to independently sit on the pillion seat?

It would be functional if a medic on a motorbike, with all the emergency medicines and equipment, speeds up to a patient lying in the densely populated street. At least he can deliver the emergency treatment and save a life.

The government should ensure that each densely populated area is divided into sectors, each one of which has an emergency centre on a wide enough motorable road at five to 10 minutes of walking distance of each house is equipped with an ambulance and emergency medicines, so that if an ambulance cannot reach the patient, the people at home can walk a stretcher or a bed of the patient to the emergency centre, for onward dispatch to a hospital.

Second, if the intention is to convert a motorbike into an ambulance, its wheel base must be almost the same as that of an Edhi ambulance. This option is unlikely to work because an Edhi ambulance can do the job. I feel the first option is more practical.

Best wishes to a province which can implement this scheme for the poor.

Farhat Asrar

Karachi

Published in Dawn, October 18th, 2017