ITANAGAR, 21 Jun: Chief Minister Pema Khandu dedicated the 108 emergency response ambulance service (ERAS) to the people of the state in a simple ceremony at the civil secretariat here on Monday.
The chief minister flagged off the ambulance in the company of Deputy Chief Minister Chowna Mein, Health Minister Alo Libang, Tourism Minister Nakap Nalo, MLAs Goruk Pordung and Techi Kaso and IMC Mayor Tame Phassang.
Under the service, 90 ambulances will operate in the network across the state, which will be operated by GVK EMRI through a centralized call centre on the PPP mode for the state National Health Mission.
These ambulances, fitted with basic life support equipments, will be positioned at strategic health facility locations to cover all parts of the state and be operated by 133 trained pilots and 146 emergency medical technicians.
The ‘Dial 108’ system will be operated through a central call centre, which can be called by using any type of mobile or landline phone from anywhere in the state to alert the centre of an accident or occurrence of an emergency medical situation.
The call centre will record the necessary information and locate the nearest available ambulance using the IT software to immediately dispatch it to the accident/patient site.
The trained manpower will provide appropriate pre-hospital care to stabilize and then transport the patient to the nearest health facility, making best use of what is known as the ‘golden hours’ after an emergency.
All the ambulances are fitted with GPS-enabled software for real-time monitoring of the personnel as well as vehicles through a central command and control cell that will be based in the state capital. Each ambulance will operate 24/7 in two shifts of 12 hours each. In each shift, there will be one trained driver/pilot as first responder and one emergency medical technician on board. Another set of trained pilot and EMT will rotate as reliever unit. Each district headquarters will have one district nodal person to monitor and coordinate the operations.
All the 90 ambulances have been allotted equitably, considering various parameters such as assembly constituency, population base and geographical locations.
Of the 90, 30 ambulances have been procured by the state government with support from the North East Special Infrastructure Development Scheme (NESIDS), while 48 ambulances were procured through the central government’s scheme for special assistance to states for capital expenditures. The National Highway & Infrastructure Development Corporation Ltd (NHIDCL) has donated 10 ambulances under its CSR activity, and two ambulances have been donated by the Airports Authority of India (AAI) to Longding district.
The chief minister expressed gratitude to the central government, the NHIDCL and the AAI for their contributions.
Reportedly, 35 states and union territories in the country have implemented the 108 emergency response service project through the PPP mode. (CM’s PR Cell)
