The Delhi government has shortlisted three bidders for its Centralised Accident and Trauma Services (CATS) ambulance system project, whereby a private player will be roped in to operate and maintain the fleet. The bidders have now been asked to send a request for proposal (RPF). However, contractual employees of CATS have threatened a strike over the issue and said the AAP government was “going against its poll promise of privatising essential services”. The Delhi government, on January 9, had invited expression of interest (EOIs) EOIs from private players to run its soon-to-be expanded fleet of about 265 ambulances and its upgraded modernised control room. According to a July 23 order of CATS, Ziqitza Healthcare Limited, GVK EMRI and UK Specialist Ambulance Service with consortium partner BVG India Limited, were “qualified to issue RPFs” from the firms which applied to the EOI notification. [related-post] Earlier this month, the Delhi Cabinet had cleared the purchase of 110 new ambulances — including 100 basic and 10 advanced life-support ones — as part of its home-to-hospital scheme. Sources said the existing CATS control room at Bela Road, currently managed by four people, will act as a “back-up”. A new 20-seat modern control room will be set up at Rajiv Gandhi Superspecialty hospital in Tahirpur, sources said. Health department officials said the new project will reduce the response time of ambulances and provide better home-to-hospital care for patients. “Currently, CATS services are largely used by accident victims and to transport pregnant women before and after delivery. The private partner will be a system integrator and will develop applications to integrate our hardware and data, connecting ambulances to devices,” an official explained. The new control room will have a video wall for supervision of all CATS ambulances. It will also have a caller location identification system. This will locate the caller based on GPS/GIS data of mobile handsets or landlines, and will give drivers real-time access to locations. The room will also have a pre-hospital notification system to alert concerned hospitals. The staff for managing the control room will be recruited and managed by the private party, sources said. However, the government will own the ambulances and the control room and CATS will have administrative control and pay salaries. Meanwhile representatives of the 450-odd contractual employees of CATS, comprising ambulance drivers and paramedics, have written to Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and have threatened to go on strike. Narender Lakda, president of the CATS contractual employees union, said, “We had protested when Delhi had no government, and then our concerns were not taken into account. When we met AAP leaders before the elections, they said the party was against privatisation of essential services. So we met the health minister thrice and met Kejriwal twice at his janta darbaar in the last few months. But each time we only got assurances which did not lead to any action.” Lakda said last Wednesday, the union had written again to Kejriwal requesting a meeting. “This time, if the CM does not give us any time for a meeting, we will be forced to sit on a dharna outside his home,” he said.
