Ambulance Service for the Persons With Disabilities (PWDs), District Bagh – Azad State of Jammu Kashmir (AJK) Pakistan.
Project Donor: TIKA
Project Objectives:
- Immediate objective: Provision of ambulance service to the local patients particularly the PWDs of Bagh for the treatment in big cities as well as in emergency.
- Long term objective: Sustainable ambulance service for the PWDs (SCIs) as well as for emergency patients of district Bagh.
Importance of Project:
In District Bagh, there are 250 FORD registered People with Disabilities (PWDs). All of these are Spinal cord injured (SCIs) patients and are permanently disabled. Physiotherapy and Catheter change after two months is mandatory treatment of these SCIs. There is no facility for catheter change and physiotherapy available in District Bagh so patients have to travel to Islamabad or Rawalpindi for treatment, as these are the nearer cities with required facilities. One time ambulance/rented van visit to these cities costs approximately $200. Many poor patients discontinued their treatment just because of the mobility cost, which they have to pay to rented van or ambulance. Government is also not providing ambulance service to PWDs (SCIs). The importance of this project is that, at one hand, is contributing to solve the mobility issues of SCIs and they are having continuous treatment, with this, District Bagh they have a sustainable and cost effective ambulance service for SCIs and other patients