UberMedic offers free rides worth Rs. 8.5 m for transporting frontline healthcare workers

Uber yesterday in partnership with the Government launched its new service, UberMedic, to offer free rides worth Rs. 8.5 million to transport frontline healthcare workers to and from their homes and health care facilities.

The service will be live in two leading Colombo public hospitals, Infectious Diseases Hospital (IDH) and the National Hospital of Sri Lanka (NHSL), where Uber will expedite the provision of 26 cars free of cost to support medical authorities. 

Uber will facilitate top-rated drivers and dedicated cars to the hospitals through its platform so that they can easily arrange reliable and efficient transportation for doctors, nurses and other health workers.

Uber’s offer is part of its global commitment, recently announced by CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, to provide 10 million rides free of charge to healthcare workers, seniors, and people in need. 

Commenting on the new service, MP Namal Rajapaksa said, “This is a timely initiative by Uber Sri Lanka to offer free rides to health care workers. This service will begin with both the IDH and NHSL workers and will be expanded and extended to other hospitals as well. I thank Uber Sri Lanka for voluntarily offering their services, free, to the hard working health care professionals who are working day and night to ensure we are all safe. #TogetherWeCan”

Sharing details about the service and offering free rides to hospitals, Uber India and South Asia Head of Central Operations Pavan Vaish said, “By leveraging our global experience, technology and network of drivers, UberMedic allows us to facilitate free transport for Sri Lanka’s real heroes, our healthcare workers, who’re helping keep our communities safe. We feel privileged to be supporting the government in helping contain the spread of COVID-19 by and stand ready to speedily scale up UberMedic to more hospitals across the country.”

To maintain safety and hygiene standards, while moving what matters, drivers will be provided personal protective equipment such as masks, sanitisers and disinfectants to sanitise cars between rides.