Jashore Correspondent

“Our Ambulance”, an ambulance service that charges a nominal cost, has become famous among the residents of Manirampur upazila in Jashore. A physician Dr Mehedi Hassan launched the service for humanitarian cause, which carries dead bodies from different parts of the country to Manirampur for free.

Five dead bodies were carried free of charge in June and 107 patients were served at nominal costs, said Mehedi Hassan who is currently working in the Department of Palliative Medicine at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU).

Rabiul Islam, a farmer of Muktarpur village, said “After the death of my brother-in-law Abdul Khalek in Malaysia, the body was brought to the country on 1 June. Dr Mehdi’s ambulance brought the dead body to the village house from the Shahjalal International Airport at a minor charge. We will always be grateful to ‘our ambulance’ services.”

Md Shah Jalal, who is in charge of the overall maintenance of the 24-hour ambulance service, said ‘Only Tk300 fare was fixed for bringing patients within the area of Monirampur upazila. Besides, the normal ambulance fare from Manirampur to Jashore is Tk1500 to Tk2000 but our ambulance charges only Tk600. Normal ambulances charge Tk15,000 to Tk17,000 in Dhaka while our ambulance charges only Tk7,000 and Tk2000 for Khulna.”

Dr Mehedi Hassan, also the younger brother of MP for Jessore-5 constituency SM Yakub Ali, said, “We have plans to add three more vehicles to the ‘Our Ambulance’ as we are getting huge response from the common people.”

When people were disoriented due to the outbreak of COVID-19, Mehedi constantly worked to provide free treatment to the COVID-affected patients. He was felicitated by the Dhaka Divisional Commissioner Office and Institute of Engineering (IEEB) and received the Sheikh Hasina Youth Volunteer Award under Dhaka OIC Youth Capital 2020.