Hello? Free ambulance? Is your service for real?

In the month since the 108 emergency ambulance service rolled out in four districts of Orissa,more people have called up 108 to check if the ambulances are for real than those who have actually sought healthcare

In the month since the 108 emergency ambulance service rolled out in four districts of Orissa,more people have called up 108 to check if the ambulances are for real than those who have actually sought healthcare.

More than 2.88 lakh calls were received at the control room of the service provider,Mumbai-based Ziqitza Healthcare Ltd,between the March 5 launch and April 7. Only 2,523 of them actually needed an ambulance. From 9,000-10,000 a month ago,the daily call count is now down to around 7,000,but incredulity still accounts for most of them. One caller would ask if the service is indeed free,another would ask if the ambulance will come immediately.

These callers are not choking up the system at the moment as the service is available in just four districts. But we expect the system to feel the pressure once we add 11 more districts, says Dr Pramod Kumar Meherda,managing director of the National Rural Health Mission,which is in charge of the projects overall management.

The ambulances are serving Khurda,Koraput,Cuttack and Ganjam. By June,they will be expanded to Angul,Bhadrak,Balasore,Dhenkanal,Jajpur,Keonjhar,Mayurbhanj,Puri,Rayagada,Sundargarh and Sambalpur.

On April 2,there were 7,853 calls made to the control room,but 141 callers actually needed the ambulance. Some people have called more than 100 times just to heap abuse on the woman operator at the control room, Meherda says.

Tarun Verma,Ziqitzas senior manager quality and marketing,says,One can understand their curiosity,but the frivolous callers could be blocking needy ones.

The arrival of an ambulance is assured in 20 minutes in urban areas and in 35 minutes in rural areas. On March 18,Sunita Khara,21,of Tikarpara in Koraput delivered her baby in an ambulance. Sunil Kumar of Bhubaneswar too called 108 when his sister had labour pains. The ambulance reached within 10-12 minutes. Had I called a hospital ambulance the state has 200,it would have reached an hour later.

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With GPS technology,the control room in Bhubaneswar sends a message to the vehicle nearest the patient. The ambulance then rushes the patient to any of 129 government health institutions. Around 80 per cent of the ambulances are designated Basic Life Support for routine complications,while the rest are Advanced Life Support ones for critical patients.

From 79 ambulances in the current four districts,the fleet will increase to 280 in 15,and to 420 once all 30 districts are covered. Health officials concede its success may put the system under stress,with district hospitals and community health centres short of doctors. The immediate task is how to give treatment to patients who make it to the hospitals, says Dr Nalinikanta Das,director of health services. We are now short of 800-odd doctors,but may tide over the crisis by appointing 450 doctors ad hoc.

Launched by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik in Bhubaneswar,the Odisha Emergency Medical Ambulance Service project involves green and white,air-conditioned Tata Winger ambulances,equipped with medicines for snakebite,respiratory distress and kidney failure,and a trained paramedic.

The service is modelled after similar ones in Andhra Pradesh,Bihar,Tamil Nadu,Rajasthan,Maharashtra,Kerala,Punjab and Karnataka. In Andhra,the ambulances were so successful that then chief minister Y S Rajshekhar Reddy would imitate the sound of the blaring siren at election meetings. It is a success Naveen would like to replicate with Orissa due to vote next year.