With a shortage of ambulances, the BEST Undertaking, in a goodwill gesture, has offered two of its buses to ferry patients. However, the move has not gone well with drivers and trade unions, who said there should be proper protocols in place before such an idea was introduced.

Sources said from last week two buses from the Wadala depot have been given out to ferry patients from the Podar hospital at Worli to BMC's Rajawadi hospital in Ghatkopar. A senior trade union leader said that the patients are just put in the bus and drivers are asked to ferry them unescorted without any doctor, health staff or even a policeman. "Who will be responsible, if the patient runs away? What about our safety? The doctors at Rajawadi did give us Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) sets, but we do not know how to use them. These should be some protocol in place while doing all this. When we go on duty, suddenly we are allotted the buses without notice," a driver said.