Coming in new year: new ambulance fleet,emergency number for mishap victims

Packaged as ‘102 Ambulance Service — Government of Delhi’,75 of the total 150 ambulances in the service will be rolled out within a fortnight,Delhi Health minister Kiran Walia said.

The ambulance service would cost between Rs 600 and Rs 1200,barring patients covered under the ‘free category’.

“The first batch of ambulances will be out on the streets on January 14 and the rest will be delivered well in time for the Commonwealth Games next October,” Walia said.

The government hopes that a centralised emergency number will help streamline emergency medical care,especially in catering to road accident victims. Delhi’s Principal Secretary (Health) J P Singh said,“Our objective is to reduce response time and provide better pre-hospital medical care for accident victims. Once the system is introduced,we hope to save more lives.”

The government has partnered with the Fortis group of hospitals to roll out the fully equipped ambulances. The public-private partnership project is worth Rs 35 crore — as part of this,Fortis will run ambulances under the Central Accident Tribunal Services (CATS).

The government has already spent Rs 25 crore,and will pay Rs 1.23 crore every month to Fortis for running the ambulances,it was informed.

While a Basic Life Support (BLS) ambulance will cost Rs 600 per ride,Advanced Life Support (ALS) ambulances will charge Rs 1,200 per trip.

Patients referred by Delhi Police,Fire Department,road and train accident victims,pregnant women,and patients from the Below Poverty Line category can avail the services free of cost.

At present,there are 35 CATS ambulances in the city,stationed at 21 base stations. But on an average,five or six of them remain off the roads each month due to maintenance problems.

Of the 150 ambulances,141 would be basic life support ambulances and nine would be advanced life support vehicles,officials said.

According to the Health department,each zone will have at least 10 ambulances deployed to provide quality emergency services to road accident victims. The requirement for each zone is approximately 25 ambulances,which takes the city’s total requirement to 150 ambulances.