Ambulances busy, pregnant women turn to police vans
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I have asked my wife to guide me on things one must say when a woman is in labour, so that I can comfort a person I’m taking to hospital.
POLICE CONSTABLE
NEWDELHI: Early on Friday morning, Ruby Kataria, 25, a resident of Sangam Vihar, nine months into her pregnancy, started having labour pain.
With most public transport off the roads because of the lockdown to contain the spread of Covid-19, her elder sister, Komal, began calling hospitals for an ambulance. But each call was met only with radio silence.
“No hospital took my call. It was an emergency. My sister was in pain, and we do not own a car. At that moment, something struck me and I called the police control room. I told them my sister was about to deliver a baby, and no conveyance was available. Within six minutes, a police van was at our door and took us to the hospital. They saved her life,” Komal said.
On Saturday afternoon, Ruby, a homemaker, gave birth to a boy.
Komal said Ruby will she would take her child to meet the head constable who saved her life, once she leaves hospital.
Since the 21-day nationwide lockdown came into effect on March 25, the city’s police control room (PCR) vans have been doubling up as ambulances.
PCR vans are the first responders whenever a crime is reported to the control room.
Between Friday and Saturday evenings alone, PCR vans shifted at least 43 women in labour to hospitals across the city.
Since March 25, the police have rushed 139 women to hospitals, after getting calls on the police control room helpline.
Deputy commissioner of police (DCP) Sharat Sinha, said, “As private and public vehicles have been banned due to the, and ambulances are mostly being used for transporting suspected or confirmed Covid-19 patients, we are getting the police vans to be used as alternate emergency vehicles to shift pregnant women or people injured in various accidents to hospitals.”
A senior official in the health department said the government has enough ambulances to transport non-Covid patients.
“We have ample ambulances dedicated for Covid-19 patients. We also have ‘102 ambulances’, which are dedicated only to transport pregnant women and sick infants.”
In some cases, police officers, unused to the task now presented to them, are going the extra mile to make sure women in their vans feel safe and comforted.
A police constable, who had rushed a pregnant woman to Safdarjung hospital on April 3, said, “I have asked my wife to guide me on the things that one must say when a woman is in labour pain so that I can comfort her psychologically. We are learning on the job. We have to learn so many things as a police officer.”
Sinha said that for many residents who do not own vehicles, getting hold of transport in emergency situations is proving to be a severe challenge.
In many cases, the police vans had to transport women in labour as far as 14km from their homes to a multi-speciality hospital.
“Keeping these problems in mind, we instructed all personnel in PCR vans to prioritise calls from women in labour,” he said. The police have now narrowed their focus on such medical emergencies, Sinha said, as crime-related calls are few and far between now. Delhi Police data shows that the number of heinous crimes, like robbery, snatching, dacoity, has come down in the last 15 days.
“The low vehicular traffic volume has led to improvements in our response time,” he added.
Each PCR van has a stretcher for those unable to walk. First-aid kits are also available in the vehicle, but they are mostly used to give preliminary medical attention to those injured in accidents. To avoid police personnel getting infected, they are provided masks, hand gloves, sanitisers, water and soap.
On Friday evening, when HT spoke to the constable, he said he was going to a spot in his PCR van. There was a distress call. Just that this time, he had less of a pressing matter on his hands — he was on his way to settle a quarrel between two neighbours.