Kollam: An ambulance gifted by Indian Bank to the Karunagappally Taluk Hospital two years ago is now lying unused and rusting in the compound of the Karunagappally Municipal Office, even as patients struggle due to the lack of affordable ambulance services.

The vehicle, meant to support the hospital’s emergency care, has remained neglected, and the validity of its fitness certificate has reportedly expired. Despite repeated complaints about the shortage of low-cost ambulance services, the authorities have allegedly failed to take any action to repair or deploy the donated vehicle.

Currently, of the two ambulances at Karunagappally Taluk Hospital, one has been sent to Sabarimala in connection with the annual pilgrimage and the other is an '108' ambulance which has to attend to emergencies across the district. Consequently, poor patients seeking treatment at the Taluk Hospital have no means to access affordable ambulance services.

All the patients at the hospital are now forced to depend on private ambulances, many of which overcharge the users. Patients and caregivers said that neither the officials at the Joint Regional Transport Office (RTO) nor the Taluk Hospital have displayed boards at the hospital mentioning the rates for ambulances to various locations. It is also alleged that a few ambulance drivers take the patients to certain private hospitals instead of the hospitals referred by the doctors at the Taluk Hospital.