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New ambulances being dispatched following delays

29 Oct 2022

By Asiri Fernando Lengthy bureaucratic processes and a shortage of funds led to delays in dispatching nearly 60 brand-new ambulances imported to Sri Lanka under a World Bank (WB) facility, The Sunday Morning learns. The storage of nearly 60 new Ford ambulances at the Colombo East Base Hospital (CEBH) for more than two months drew public criticism last week, with many questioning why the State assets were not being used and left unsheltered in the open for a prolonged period. Some of the residents in the area surrounding CEBH had expressed concerns about the safety of the new vehicles, given a surge in automobile theft reported by the Police. The ambulances were part of a stock of vehicles imported to Sri Lanka recently under a WB facility, Director General of Health Services Dr. Asela Gunawardena told The Sunday Morning. Dr. Gunawardena said the fleet of emergency response vehicles was stored in the open yard within the CEBH in Mulleriyawa until the registration process was completed. “These ambulances were imported through the World Bank. We had to follow a process to transfer them and register them in Sri Lanka. We also needed to fix some partitions and equipment to the fleet and there were delays in finding funding for that. That’s why the vehicles were kept at the CEBH,” Dr. Gunawardena said.    Meanwhile, Ministry of Health Secretary Janaka Sri Chandraguptha told The Sunday Morning that following completion of the required registration process and fittings, most of the ambulances had been dispatched to their assigned hospitals by the Ministry of Health on Thursday (27). It is understood that a number of ambulances which are ‘ready to go’ remain at the CEBH grounds awaiting to be picked up by staff of the assigned hospitals.  

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