Free Ambulances for Traffic Accident Victims

Ambulance services for the victims of traffic accidents will be free of charge, the Health Ministry announced in a statement on Thursday—just days after making corpse transport from public hospitals similarly free.

“In order to reduce the poverty of the people, and in accordance with the government’s policy, national hospitals’ ambulance services should not charge the victims of traffic accidents on all the streets of the Kingdom of Cambodia,” said the statement, signed by Health Minister Mam Bunheng.

The document directs officials at state hospitals and provincial health departments to find money in their budgets to pay for the service.

The transport of traffic accident victims became a public service in 2008, when the government outlawed private ambulances from competing for commissions at the scenes of crashes.

Health Ministry spokesman Ly Sovann said he could not comment Thursday on the statement, while Mr. Bunheng said he was too busy to talk about it.

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