Blinkit Ambulance has decided to charge Rs 2,500 for non-emergency patient transfers, while continuing to provide emergency rides free of cost. Eternal founder Deepinder Goyal said the decision was taken after the company noticed a rise in bookings for routine hospital visits, check-ups and other journeys that did not require emergency medical assistance.
Announcing the change, Goyal said the fee would be collected after the non-emergency trip and would broadly be in line with the rates charged by private ambulance operators. Emergency transfers, however, will remain free.
Non-emergency Transfers To Attract Charges
In a post, Goyal revealed that Blinkit Ambulance had handled nearly 42,000 cases over the past two years, including around 20,000 emergency cases, without charging patients. However, he said the free service was increasingly being used for journeys that could have been managed through ordinary private transport.
"With everything free, a growing share of bookings are for routine checkups, hospital visits and hospital-to-home transfers, trips that an Uber or private transport could have handled just as easily," Goyal said.
Routine Bookings Affect Emergency Availability
He explained that such bookings keep fully equipped ambulances and paramedics occupied, potentially making them unavailable for patients requiring urgent medical attention. The company hopes the new pricing policy will discourage people from using emergency vehicles for routine transfers.
Goyal said the Rs 2,500 collected from non-emergency trips would be transferred to the Eternal Foundation, which operates the ambulance service. The funds will be used to support the expansion of its operations.
Paramedic Training & Expansion Plans
He also pointed to the shortage of trained and empathetic paramedics as the biggest hurdle in scaling up ambulance services while maintaining quality. The company's training academy is being expanded to address the gap, but Goyal said the process would not come at the cost of training standards.
Blinkit aims to take its 10-minute ambulance service to all major cities across India over the next two to four years. Goyal said the service had helped save lives and that its emergency fleet needed to remain available for patients who require immediate medical assistance.
