Ambulance driver keen on coconuts ignores serious patient

21 October 2016 06:27 pm Views - 15535

An ambulance driver transporting a patient in a critical condition from the Embilipitiya district hospital to the Ratnapura hospital for further treatment is alleged to have stopped the vehicle at a spot where coconuts were being sold.

This episode went viral and by noon today more than 128,000 visiting this social media website.

Sabaragamuwa Provincial Director of Health Services, Dr. Kapila Kannangar said the driver was immediately transferred to the Ratnapura Deputy Health Officers Office.

He said this driver had other cases against him as well.

When the patient was being transported along the Embilipitiya - Ratnapura road the driver had stopped the ambulance outside a house where coconuts were being collected and de-husked for sale.

The Video shows the patient in a critically ill condition with several tubes connected to his body amid several medical equipment inside the ambulance. The patients son had videoed this scene and uploaded it on a social media website. This video clip shows the patient lying inside the ambulance and and driver alighting from it and speaking to someone near a pile of coconuts. A frame showing someone supposedly a health attendant seated near the driver and smiling in the direction of the driver is also seen in this video lasting a few minutes.

Dr. Kannangara had ordered an immediate disciplinary inquiry against the driver concerned and had transferred the driver with a view to conducting an impartial inquiry. (Ajith Lal Shantha Udaya and jayantha Nanayakkara)