Ambulance Blocked From Parking Near Bedok Polyclinic

This is an unpublished letter I sent to Sunday Times on 29 May 2011. Three photographs were attached to support my comments.

Hi

I would like to share some photographs I took at the carpark near Blk 212 Bedok North Street 1, where the Bedok Polyclinic is located. It shares the same building as an NTUC Fairprice Supermarket. This is also the clinic many elderly residents visit. As the photographs show - an ambulance's way was blocked by many vans/trucks doing delivery to the Fairprice outlet. This was in the afternoon - and in the morning, there are even more delivery vehicles. As you can see, the medical crew had to push the stretcher by foot to get to the polyclinic. I had to reversed all the way out as my car was also blocked by other lorries in the front.

I had some months ago written to HDB, NTUC and the Polyclinic to raise this concern. Each department had referred to each other organization. Finally, HDB mentioned it was going to discuss with the other two parties on how to resolve it. Obviously, this has not progressed. In the light of the recent discussion regarding the failure of motorists to give way to emergency vehicles, I thought it is timely to also re-surface this.

Perhaps the various organizations can now see how this situation can be quickly resolved before lives are endangered by the behavior of selfish vehicle owners.