The ‘108’ ambulance service has handled 23,800 emergency cases in Madurai district this year.
Having 17 ambulances in its fleet, this service has crisscrossed the district rushing patients to various government and private hospitals.
Consolidated data generated from January to November 2012 shows that 22,244 emergencies were handled while it has attended more than 1,500 calls in December.
“Handling 23,800 emergencies in a single year is a very big number for us and we could save thousands of patients by taking them to hospitals in time,” S. G. S. Lakshmanan, Regional Manager (Operations), GVK-Emergency Management and Research Institute, which operates the ‘108’ Ambulance Service, told The Hindu here on Sunday.
He said that the ambulances were used for various types of emergencies such as pregnancy, road accidents, cardiac cases, fire/burns, assault and animal attacks. Accidents on four-way lanes, he said, have become a major concern since the number of accidents has risen. Data generated by the ‘108’ service with specific information about emergencies is being shared regularly with police and health departments.
G. Thanigaivel Murugan, District Manager, GVK-EMRI, gave the breakup of emergency calls attended in 2012: trauma (vehicular) incidents 6,007; pregnancy related calls 5,761; acute abdomen pain 1,187, cardiac/ cardiovascular 1,024, trauma non-vehicular 936, accidental poisoning 933, assault 703, respiratory 542, animal attack 575, neonatal up to one month 553, epilepsy 527, unconscious 445, fire/ burns 330, stroke and cerebro vascular accidents 187.
“Our call centres log in the information when the call comes and later we maintain patient call report. Nearly 90 per cent of the emergencies are being taken to government hospitals only,” Mr.Lakshmanan said.
According to him, the maximum calls are coming from the city and suburbs.
