Rescue foundations in the Northeast have suspended their free emergency response services after not receiving financial support from the National Institute for Emergency Medicine (Niem) for eight months.
Pisit Pongsirisupakul of the Phutthatham Hook 31 Foundation in Nakhon Ratchasima on Tuesday said at least five of its 50 rescue teams had stopped operating emergency ambulance services as they did not have money for fuel.
He said this was the case despite the foundation accepting public donations and once having 500,000 baht in its bank account, which is now in the red.
"We have more than two million baht in debts," Mr Pisit said.
"The volunteer teams still operating have to pay for petrol themselves because if we stop our services, people will be badly affected," he said.
Mr Pisit said he hoped Niem would show empathy to the foundation and other rescuers nationwide and speed up reimbursements.
Another foundation in Nakhon Ratchasima also faces the same problems.
The foundation urged Niem to help solve its financial problems quickly as they don't want patients in need of emergency services to be impacted by mismanagement of the state agency.
In Khon Kaen, two units of the Highway Police Rescue, another voluntary foundation, suspended their emergency service after they ran out of funds.
Niem said its database system has had problems since the end of last year, which resulted in Niem not being able to reimburse costs to foundations.
Niem has a new system up and running, and hopes to allocate budgets for rescue units nationwide this month, it said.
