Daily News
All Emergency Medical Services To Be Brought Under 108 Soon
Bhubaneswar: To improve the service delivery system, the health and family welfare department has decided to integrate all services of emergency medical ambulance, boat ambulance, 24×7 referral transport and health helpline on one platform.
With this, people in the state will be able to avail themselves of emergency medical service by dialling the toll-free number 108, instead of dialling different numbers for different-yet-similar services.
The health department has already floated a tender to select an agency that will look after the integration process.
At present, the health department in collaboration with a service provider is operating two toll-free numbers from two call centres to provide medical services. For emergency medical ambulances, people have to dial 108, while for 24×7 referral transport, they have to dial 102. For health helpline, they have to call 104.
“We have decided to integrate all emergency medical services and deliver the same through one toll-free number instead of multiple ones. This will help improve the overall operational efficiency of the services. We will select an executor for the project and hopefully start the same in the next two months,” a health department official said.
The department in consultation with the service provider has also decided to rework the standard operating procedure for the services to help ensure consistency and quality of services. The standard operating procedure will also have operational protocols for circumstances like natural calamities.
As part of the plan, all 512 advanced life support and basic life support ambulances, 500 referral transport system for the beneficiaries of Janani Shishu Suraksha Karyakram for the 30 districts and boat ambulances functioning in four riverine districts of the state will be brought into the integrated system.
Besides integrating the medical services and delivering the same through one toll-free number, the health department has decided to change the branding and embossing of vehicles used as ambulances. “All the ambulances will be re-branded and have same sticker,” the official added.
The two call centres (located in the capital city) that manage the emergency medical services and the health helpline receive more than 10,000 calls per day and handle approximately 1,100 emergencies on a daily basis. The vehicles are also fitted with GPS for smooth monitoring and service delivery.-Times Of India