Ambulance in 30 mins: Himachal signs MoU

The Himachal Pradesh government on Monday signed an MoU with Anjana International,an India-based company working in collaboration with Germany,for running the state government’s ambitious Emergency Medical Response and Transportation (EMR&T) scheme. So far,only Gujarat and Uttarakhand have started the scheme. EMR&T will be a GPS-based ambulance service connected to a single call centre. The facility will be made operational in the next two months with the arrival of the first batch of ambulances,said Principal Secretary (Health) P C Dhiman,who signed the MoU.

“There will be a network of 100 to 150 ambulances,stationed at appropriate places all over the state. An emergency response centre equipped with necessary information and technology will support the system,” said a top government official.

The response time will be 30 minutes in urban towns and 45 minutes in rural areas,he added. The project is likely to cost Rs 20 crore with a recurring expenditure of up to Rs 15 crore annually.