Health and Family Welfare Minister Dr D L Ravindra Reddy on Saturday admitted that the ambulance that carried TDP senior leader K Yerran Naidu, after he met with a tragic accident, had no oxygen cylinders.
Addressing a press conference at his chambers in the State Secretariat, Ravindra Reddy said that although 108 and 104 Emergency Services were not under his ministry, he had enquired with the officials about the incident. He said that he was pained to know that the ambulance had not even possessed an oxygen cylinder. He said that the incident had exposed the fact that emergency services in the state lacked basic facilities.
Ravindra Reddy said that the state government did not take any measures to set up the 14 proposed trauma care centres on different national highways across the state. He also accused Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar of ignoring his appeals to improve the basic medical facilities in the rural areas.
The minister's revelation is bound to trigger a major controversy. Already there were allegations that the 108 Ambulance did not reach the spot on time after Yerran Naidu and four others were injured after their car hit an oil tanker in Srikakulam district in the early hours of Friday. Therefore, he was taken to the KIMS hospital by an ambulance of the National Highway Service. (INN)
filed in:Healthcare, D L Ravindra Reddy, Prominent Deaths, Deaths