City gov’t getting 6 new ambulances

CEBU, Philippines - The Cebu City government is set to purchase six more ambulances to improve its medical services.

The new emergency vehicles will be made available to the barangays for free.

Councilor David Tumulak, who chairs the City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office, said five of the ambulances will be subjected to bidding and will become available by July and August while the sixth will be awarded to the city today.

 The brand-new ambulances will increase to seven the city’s existing ambulances. Tumulak said the medical vehicles will be handled by one major barangay, which will cover five barangays.

“Wa’ na ‘ta mag-encourage og barangay-based na ambulance kay usahay way driver, so kinahanglan five barangays per one ambulance unya 24/7 ‘na nga mag-tuyok-tuyok within those five barangays,” Tumulak said.

He said that the mountain barangays will be prioritized. The councilor said the Emergency Rescue Unit Foundation, Philippine Red Cross, and the Basak-Pardo Emergency Rescue also have their own ambulances to cater the rest of the 80 barangays in the city.

Each ambulance will have a ten-man team, which will be composed of three drivers, and seven paramedics and registered nurses.

Five of the ambulances will each cost P1.5 million while the sixth vehicle, equipped with life-support system that will cater to mass casualties, cost P2 million, he said.

The General Services Office will provide a minimum of 250 liters of fuel to each ambulance per month, Tumulak said.

“Nakakita na sila sa kamahinungdanon sa atong pagdugang sa krudo, so nagpasalamat pud ta nga mibista si Engr. (Dionisio) Gualiza sa pagbisita nila sa atong ofc ug ila ta’ng tagaan ug dili na limitahan sa fuel,” said Tumulak, who earlier mulled on filing charges against Gualiza for allegedly depriving them of fuel.

From January to May 28 this year, at least 3,099 emergency calls have been received by CDRRMC, which is considerably many, said Tumulak.  (FREEMAN)