Equipment defective
The spine boards supplied with 232 high-performance ambulances that were purchased in an allegedly corrupt deal might need to be replaced, a Public Health Ministry panel said after finding a sample to be substandard during checks yesterday.
The panel found that the spine board in a Nong Khai ambulance bent when a 97-kilogram official lay on it. It had no polyurethane filling to strengthen it as specified in the supplier's terms of reference.Panel chairman Dr Panya Sornkom said the spine boards on the other vehicles might also be substandard and the ministry would have to either check each one or change them all, he said. Panya's panel along with doctors from Bamrasnaradura Institute and emergency experts began checking the ambulances against the purchase contract specifications yesterday morning. Apart from Chulalongkorn University lecturer Dr Tul Sittisomwong, no members of the team that checked two such ambulances for the Office of the Auditor-General (OAG) last month were present, nor did OAG officials observe the work. Tul said the neck braces supplied with the ambulances, which the US Embassy has said might be patent-violating counterfeits, were of the wrong brand and looked fake as the logo was on a sticker instead of being stamped into the metal.
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