The tragic demise of Dr P. Venugopal, former Director of AIIMS, while being transported in an ill-equipped ambulance, has exposed the shocking state of India’s emergency medical infrastructure. If the nation’s foremost cardiac surgeon could not access basic life support during a medical emergency, one can only imagine the plight of ordinary citizens, particularly those in remote or hilly regions such as Jammu and Kashmir, where hospitals are miles apart and terrain delays are routine. The revelation that nearly 90 percent of ambulances in India operate without basic facilities such as oxygen and essential medical equipment is not merely an administrative failure-it is a humanitarian crisis. These vehicles, in many cases, are nothing more than glorified taxis, ferrying patients instead of providing life-saving care. The very purpose of an ambulance-to stabilise a patient and offer emergency support before reaching the hospital-is rendered meaningless when such vehicles lack even rudimentary medical setups or trained paramedic staff.
The petition before the Supreme Court seeking a comprehensive framework for regulating ambulances is therefore both timely and necessary. The Apex Court’s intervention may finally compel the Centre and states to acknowledge what countless families have silently suffered for decades: that our emergency medical transport system is perilously unregulated and grossly inadequate. The NITI Aayog’s 2023 report and the Health Ministry’s own review mission had already documented the deep structural flaws-ranging from poor maintenance to lack of monitoring and standardisation. Yet, successive Governments have treated ambulance services as an afterthought, leaving their operation to private contractors or ill-equipped public departments. This neglect is indefensible, especially in a country witnessing one of the world’s highest rates of road accidents and trauma-related deaths.
Every ambulance on the road must meet a minimum life-support standard, be equipped with oxygen, defibrillators, and emergency medication and be staffed by trained paramedics. Equally crucial is a mechanism for real-time monitoring and public grievance redressal to prevent overcharging and negligence. Any deviation from prescribed standards should trigger automatic cancellation of registration-no exceptions, no excuses. Lives cannot continue to be lost in transit due to systemic apathy. The Supreme Court’s intervention offers a glimmer of hope that ambulances truly mean a vehicle of life.
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