The Times of India 13.11.2009
Government. amends 108 request for proposal terms
JAIPUR: After postponing the last date for submission of proposals for operation contract of 108 ambulance service, the health department has made amendments in the request for proposals. Following objections from the institutes interested in the contract, the last date of submission for the proposals was extended by the department. However, the new amendments have not been sufficient to satisfy the aspiring parties.
"The government has lowered the minimum daily average for each ambulance from five patients to four and has also permitted the service provider to take marketing decisions. However, the other terms have made it a tough bid to quote" said n official from one of the aspiring company.
According to sources, at least five companies, including three with international tie-ups and the outbound service provider Emergency Management and Research Institute (EMRI) have shown interest in the bidding. Even as all of them have previous experience of operating emergency vehicles, they primarily had objections over minimum trip average per ambulance and fixed operation cost for three years.
Even in the amended format an average of four trips per day per ambulance is expected in the first three months of the service. An average of five is expected to be achieved in the next three months and if the service provider fails to match the criteria, penalty will be imposed on him. The present average patient load per ambulance remains 2.7 patients per day. Hence, even with amended minimum limit, the possibilities of penalty remain high whereas there remains no incentive if any ambulance exceeds the target.
However, the government has still failed to address the issue of fixed operation charges for three years. In the new proposed setup the service provider has to quote his expected monthly expenditure per ambulance. This amount will be provided to him over the next three years by the state government.
"The prices of petrol and employee salaries are subject to change, hence it will be a tough call to predict a fixed amount per ambulance. On the safer side we will be evaluating the worst possible case and the quoted price will be much more than the real operation costs," says an official at one of the interested companies.
The health department officials are, meanwhile, unwilling to comment over the issue and say the queries of the aspiring companies have been duly responded and following amendment in the proposal they are expected to soon submit their proposals.
