By RALPH JOHN MIJARES
ROXAS City — A councilor here wants all ambulances in the capital city to have all basic life-saving equipment.
Councilor Cesar Yap Jr. has proposed an ordinance mandating ambulances to be equipped with neck braces, splints, oxygen tanks and regulators, intravenous fluids and sets, intubation gadgets, and bag valve masks, among others.
Yap told Panay News that a vehicular accident in Cuartero town on May 2 prompted him to propose such ordinance.
A YouTube video, which Yap himself uploaded and shared on Facebook, showed the councilor attending to the victim, trying to move him from a grassy area to an ambulance.
Yap asked from the ambulance personnel for a neck brace, a splint and a pair of gloves, but the said materials were unavailable.
He believes it is time to change the impression on ambulances as “vehicles serving only as mode of [transportation for] sick patients and healthy physicians from one hospital to another.”
Ambulances should be “saving lives [right] where accidents or catastrophes happen,” he said.
The proposed ordinance will be tackled on second reading during the Sangguniang Panlungsod session today.
A committee on mass media hearing on the proposed ordinance was held yesterday.
Among the suggestions were training rescuers at the barangay level and having one ambulance with essential equipment for every type of emergency.
Representatives from the Bureau of Fire Protection, Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office, Capiz Emergency Response Team, and private hospitals here attended the hearing./PN
