Ambulance charges Rs1.2 lakh for 350-km ride

Manav Mander

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, May 6

Failing to find a hospital bed with adequate facilities for her Covid positive mother, Amandeep Kaur of Gurugram somehow managed to get a bed at a Ludhiana hospital. But her struggle didn’t end there.

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Delhi Police arrests owner of ambulance service company for charging Rs 1.2 lakh from patient's daughter

An ambulance operator charged her a whopping Rs 1.20 lakh for shifting her mother Satinder Kaur from Gurugram to Ludhiana (a distance of nearly 350 km).

She said: “The driver had asked for Rs 1.40 lakh. Since I had the oxygen stock with me, he cut the charges by Rs 20,000. When I argued that the charges were too high, he refused to budge. I had no other option since my mother’s life was at stake.”

After admitting her mother to a hospital in Dugri here, she shared the receipt with her relatives and on social media. The matter came to the notice of the Delhi Police and an FIR was lodged against the ambulance operating firm.

Amandeep got her entire money back. “I will utilise it to help needy Covid patients,” she said.

Monika Bhardwaj, DCP (West), Delhi Police, said: “Though we had not received any complaint, we took the company to task. Multiple cases are coming across us where ambulance service providers and pharmacists are fleecing patients.”

Meanwhile, patients from Delhi NCR continue to rush to Punjab as the health facilities there are getting exhausted.