The Health Department has been compelled to relax tender conditions to find bidders to run its 108 Arogya Kavacha service following poor response to tenders invited in September. Tenders had been called after the department’s contract with GVK-EMRI (Emergency Management and Research Institute) was terminated.
The company (GVK) has now been asked to continue providing services till January 31, before which the fresh tendering process will be completed. After a nine-year association with GVK-EMRI to provide emergency medical response service through ‘108’ ambulances, the department terminated its contract with the company in August 2017. The reasons cited included irregularities and violation of tender conditions.
- Earlier, the tender conditions mandated the bidder to have run an ambulance service with 500 vehicles for at least 10 years. This has been scaled down to 250 vehicles and five years now
- Earlier, norms stipulated that the bidder should have had the experience of running a 100-personnel call centre. This has been reduced to 50 now
The tenders called in September attracted only two bidders, including GVK. “We had no choice but to go for re-tenders with relaxations in tender norms so that there is enhanced participation,” R. Narayan, Deputy Director, EMRI, told The Hindu.
“GVK’s services were terminated because they mismanaged the service. We had also received several complaints about delay in providing medical aid to people and taking them to private hospitals. It would be unfortunate if we have to choose them again. So, we have relaxed the tender norms,” Dr. Narayan explained.
Earlier, the tender conditions mandated the bidder to have run an ambulance service with 500 vehicles for at least 10 years. This has been scaled down to 250 vehicles and five years now. Besides this, the bidder should also have had the experience of running a 100-seat call centre. This has been reduced to 50 seats now, Dr. Narayan added.
“There are very few companies that have the experience of running an ambulance service efficiently in the country. With the relaxed norms, we hope there will be enhanced participation and we can choose an efficient service provider,” he said.
Following complaints that led to termination of the contract, the Health Department had warned GVK several times to improve its service delivery by ensuring timely maintenance of ambulances and clinical equipment. There was also a lot of unrest among the employees because of a whimsical HR. Many employees went on strike and were terminated from service for trivial reasons. “In the wake of this, we are now being extra vigilant and strictly monitoring to ensure that there are no major lapses in service delivery by GVK till a new player is chosen. We have also been slapping penalties,” Dr. Narayan said.
The government entered into an agreement with GVK-EMRI in 2008 for a period of 10 years. Apart from the 711 Arogya Kavacha ambulances, there are over 800 ambulances attached to government hospitals. All these ambulances will be merged and brought under the Arogya Kavacha service. “This will ensure that one ambulance is available for a population of 42,000. Till now, one ambulance has been catering to 92,000 people,” Dr. Narayan said. The re-tenders will be floated in a day or two as the e-governance Department is working on technical specifications about IT solutions, he added.
