“Look at me, stay with us,” the paramedics shout as a barely conscious motorcyclist is bundled into a volunteer ambulance in the Laotian capital, Vientiane, where rampant drink driving brings nightly carnage to the roads.
It is a grim scene familiar the world over, but in Laos, an impoverished and authoritarian communist country with almost no state-funded medical services, these kind of vital lifesavers are volunteers and entirely funded by donations. And they have never been more in demand.
By the time the crew arrive at a nearby hospital, the Japanese donated ambulance — a right hand drive vehicle in a left hand drive nation — has picked up two more injured on the way. Fresh calls for help are coming in all the time.
Photo: AFP
Founded in 2010 by a group of foreigners, “Vientiane Rescue” is a much needed lifeline for those in need of urgent medical care.
“Before we launched this service, after an accident the wounded were simply left on the roadside or taken away in tuk-tuks. That’s obviously disastrous for those with fractures or trauma,” said Sibastien Perret, a French national and former firefighter who helped found the group.
Poorly maintained roads, dilapidated vehicles, an increase in motorcycle use and the widespread prevalence of drink driving makes Vientiane one of Asia’s most precarious capitals for road deaths.
The government keeps few statistics, but Perret’s group said demand for their services has jumped 30 percent in the last year alone.
“We undertake around 20 to 30 call outs a day. And in 90 percent of cases it is road accidents,” he said.
Years of rapid growth has seen the streets fill with vehicles in recent years, many of them brand new luxury cars driven by the country’s communist party elite. That wealth — and the volunteer ambulances scooping victims up from the road — are both a stark illustration of how public services in communist Laos are largely nascent or non-existent despite being one of Asia’s fastest growing economies in the past decade.
In the 1990s the country’s rulers abandoned free healthcare, meaning ordinary citizens must fend for themselves when they get ill.
Since 2000, Laos’ GDP has increased 12 times, reaching US$12.3 billion last year, but the country has one of the world’s lowest spends on healthcare. In recent years it has averaged just 0.5 percent of GDP according to the World Bank.
Volunteer groups plug some of the gaps, but even they face shortages. At Vientiane Rescue bandages are washed and reused, while several of their ambulances are crudely converted cars.
The service operates 24-hours a day, seven days a week and has also recently expanded into firefighting teams and specialists to counter drownings.
Most of those volunteering are students who are sent to Thailand for first aid training.
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