A unique ambulance service
Do not let it run out of steam
It is not every day we come across a local administration official at Upazila level introducing a service that is so out of the box, it makes us sit up and notice. For the remote villages around Mohadevpur Upazila Health Complex of Naogaon district, pregnant women had a hard time getting to the complex when labour steps in or to get to the health centre because of a lack of requisite transportation. The local Upazila Nirbahi Officer came up with the idea of modifying a batter run easy bike into an ambulance, which effectively solved the problem for people who need to get to the health complex, like pregnant mothers. The transformed mode of transportation allows for two or three attendees to ride the vehicle along with the patient to the health complex and the drivers of these "ambulances" can be reached at any time over mobile phone. The service has been introduced in early January.
This is an innovative idea that takes an already existing and popular mode of transportation and makes changes that cost roughly Tk160,000 - Tk200,000 to complete. The charges for using these ambulances are well within reach of targeted customers who would otherwise have to pay exorbitant sums for conventional transportation, which is not readily available at any hour. We congratulate Mohadevpur's Upazila Nirbahi Officer Mr. AKM Tjkir-Uz-Zaman for coming up with the idea that works and it is very welcome news that an idea has been replicated across 26 unions of different upzila administrations of four districts to help people living in remote villages reach health complexes in times of need. This service needs to be supported with budgetary allocation by the administration so that the facility remains in operation.