Case on Ambulance

CASE STUDY ON AMBULANCE

I. PROBLEM

What is the state of an ambulance, a public good, in our country?

II. ANALYSIS

AMBULANCE. According to the definition of US General Services Administration (2002), an ambulance is a vehicle for emergency medical care which provides: a driver's compartment; a patient compartment to accommodate an emergency medical technician (EMT)/paramedic and a patient; equipment and supplies for emergency care at the scene as well as during transport; two-way radio communication; and, when necessary, equipment for light rescue/extrication procedures.

In the Philippine context, an ambulance is an essential vehicle for transporting the sick or injured people. It is designed to provide safety and comfort to patients. Usually an emergency responder, an ambulance is ready with all necessary medical equipment and is expected to avoid the aggravation or the worsening of the illness or injury in its course in transporting patients to a designated place of treatment.

HAVING AN AMBULANCE. Philippine government, in its vision of having healthy and safe Filipinos finds ways in providing services to the people. One good example is the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes which is a government agency that generate funds to help health programs and charities. Local government units benefit from this agency especially in obtaining an ambulance for their respective community, provided that there are certain legal processes involved. PCSO requires the requesting party to have a request letter sent to the agency which incorporates justifications for the donation of the ambulance. A resolution within the LGU should also be created in requesting an ambulance unit. There is also a certification requirement for 60-40% cost sharing scheme for the availability of funds from the LGU treasurer for the total cost of the ambulance unit (pcso.gov.ph, 2008).

ISSUE. Recently, there is an issue that came out after PCSO discovered documents showing ambulance donations during the Arroyo administration. There were 407 ambulances that were given to political allies of the administration and 73% of these did not comply with the rule of the PCSO that recipients will shoulder at least 40% of the vehicle's price. In other words, in contrast with the policy, some ambulances are freely given to government officials that are allies of the former administration regardless of the income of their LGU (Cabacungan, Jr., 2011).

The issue definitely shows how weak the PCSO is during the previous administration and how anomalies are being held ‘normal' within the government agencies which supposed to cater the needs of the less fortunate Filipinos.

COST BENEFIT ANALYSIS. This is a crucial step for the government and its agencies to analyze the costs and benefits to the society