Overwhelmed By The Increasing Number Of COVID-19 Victims, The DPRD Asks The Surabaya City Government To Add An Ambulance

A fleet of COVID-19 mortuary ambulances in Surabaya. (Dock Between)

SURABAYA - Commission D for People's Welfare of the Surabaya City DPRD asked the local government to add an ambulance fleet to transport bodies, following the death of many people exposed to COVID-19, including those who are self-isolating at home.

"Almost every day, we get a lot of complaints regarding the Dinsos ambulance pick-up via Call Center 112, because the waiting time can be more than four hours," said Chairman of Commission D of the Surabaya City DPRD, Khusnul Khotimah, in the capital of East Java Province, Tuesday, July 13.

Khusnul said that the transmission of COVID-19 in the City of Heroes was increasing every day. In fact, he continued, based on the data he received as of Monday, July 12, the accumulation of COVID-19 infections in the city of Surabaya reached 26,101 people with 963 active patients being treated. As a result, he continued, the ambulance service that delivered the bodies and COVID-19 patients who were referred to the hospital were waiting in line.

Not only that, Khusnul said, burial of corpses using health protocols was a problem for the city government. This is because many residents are isoman at home and then died.

The limited number of ambulance fleets and drivers, he continued, was also one of the obstacles that made services less responsive in the midst of a pandemic. "The corpse ambulance service is the focus of the problem that must be found," he said as reported by Antara.

Therefore, Khusnul suggested that the city government increase the number of fleets and repair the damaged corpse ambulances to be optimized to serve residents so that the waiting time is not long.

The Mayor of Surabaya, Eri Cahyadi, had previously ordered the Head of the Surabaya City Asset Procurement and Management Service, Noer Oemarijati, to turn several official cars into ambulances. "Mother, please take the back seat later. Then add a siren on it. We will use the official car for the ambulance," he said.

Deputy Secretary of the Surabaya COVID-19 Task Force for the Acceleration of Handling, Irvan Widyanto, said the Surabaya City Government had added an ambulance fleet for the Rapid Action Team (TGC) which was divided into 7 local areas. "In addition, from the Social Service Agency, which previously only had 7 ambulances, it became 10 ambulances," he said.

In addition, he said, there was the participation of the private sector who lent ambulances for handling COVID-19 in Surabaya. Currently, private ambulances are still being recorded. One of them is from the East Java Junior Chamber International (JCI) entrepreneur organization which lends five ambulance units.

Not only that, he continued, his party also received the support of 126 ambulance drivers from the Surabaya Calling Volunteers. They will assist ambulance operations at the Social Service (Dinsos), Health Service (Dinkes) to cover the Puskesmas spread across 31 sub-districts in Surabaya which are crowded with patients affected by COVID-19.