A private ambulance service provider claims the government has issued ambulance service tenders to companies which had modified their vehicles.
Azad Ali, Director of Island Medical Centre in Suva made the comments after Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka raised his concerns at the lack of ambulances in Fiji.
“The Prime Minister looks into it, especially the awarding of tenders to people contracted to provide ambulance services to the general public,” he said.
“It seems that the procurement team that looks into and awards tenders for the awarding of ambulance services do not understand the technical and the needs of the people.”
“I even personally went to the Ministry of Economy to discuss the services provided by my medical centre but the tender was given to people who modified their vehicles to make it into ambulances.”
“We blame the Economy Ministry’s tender processing and awarding team for the lack of knowledge and the situation the country is in now as far as the provision of ambulance services is concerned.”
Mr Ali added he welcomed the call by the Prime Minister to establish a National Ambulance Committee.
“The whole blame for the state of ambulance services in the country solely lies on the procurement department of the Ministry of Economy.”
“It’s their lack of knowledge on the needs of the people and how services should be provided that has resulted in the current state of ambulance services in the country.”
Island Medical Centre bought two state of the art ambulances from Japan.
“They are parked because the service that we provided to the needy people in getting to CWM Hospital for medical treatment was not considered.”
“We welcome Government officials to come and see for themselves the ambulances that we have and what they have chosen.”
