The Rajshahi Medical College Hospital authorities on Thursday launched a cardiac ambulance service with an intensive care unit ambulance worth around Tk 1.5 crore.

The ambulance had been lying unused in the hospital’s garage for more than two years allegedly for a lack of manpower.

The hospital authorities made a move after media reports that the ICU facilities of the ambulance had been lying unused in the RMCH garage for more than two years.

The cardiac ambulance is equipped with forty types of medical equipment, including various life-saving devices such as advanced technology pulse oximeter, ECG machine, syringe pump, ventilator, suction machine, monitor, and oxygen cylinder.

The ambulance left RMCH for Dhaka with a patient who was admitted to the hospital with heart disease, for better treatment at noon, said RMCH director Brigadier Shameem Yazdany on Thursday.

The hospital employees said that Lutfor Rahman, an assistant sub-inspector of Naogoan police, was admitted to ward No 32 of the hospital with chest pain on Wednesday.

Since his physical condition deteriorated, the doctors advised that he should be taken to Dhaka for better treatment. The hospital authorities made the ambulance available on demand to take the patient to the capital.

Though the ambulance was supposed to have a skilled doctor and a nurse in attendance, only a senior nurse accompanied the patient since no doctor has been appointed so far, the hospital sources said.

Brigadier Shameem Yazdany said that the honorariums for doctors and nurses who would provide their services to ambulance patients are yet to be fixed, he said, adding, ‘We have sent a letter to the authorities concerned in this regard.’