Emergency response ambulance service ‘108' will soon have exclusive ambulances for neo-natal emergencies to take care of newborn babies.
The ‘Neo Natal Ambulance' will be fully equipped and it will be useful in cases of delivery complications where a baby has to be urgently shifted to a major hospital, particularly to the Government Rajaji Hospital (GRH) here.
S. G. S. Lakshmanan, Regional Manager (Operations), ‘108 Emergency Service', told The Hindu, on Friday, that Madurai district is likely to get two neo-natal ambulances and they will be stationed at places where more delivery-related complications are usually reported.
“Based on the infant mortality rate data, we may have one ambulance at Usilampatti so that a baby from the Government Hospital or Primary Health Centres in that area can be immediately shifted to GRH.
The objective of this exclusive neo natal ambulance is to prevent infant mortality,” he said.
The ambulance will have warmer and incubator . “This service will be helpful in cases where babies with breathing difficulty or any other complications that arise after delivery needs quick attention at a specialised tertiary care hospital.
The Institute of Child Health at Egmore in Chennai is providing us the technical support for introducing this special ambulance service,” Mr. Lakshmanan said.
More ambulances
The Regional Manager also informed that Madurai district is expected to get more ‘108' ambulances in the coming months since the State Government has announced that the ambulance fleet will be expanded in Tamil Nadu.
“At present, there are 13 ambulances in our district and we are in the process of submitting fresh proposals to the Tamil Nadu Health Systems Project officials about our requirements. Also, we are repositioning our ambulances so that each ambulance will cover a cluster of Government Hospitals and Primary Health Centres,” he added.
The ‘108' ambulance service is attending 70 to 80 calls per day across the district and nearly 50 per cent of them are road accident cases. Ambulances are well-equipped with basic life support system while two ‘108' ambulances have advanced life support equipment such as ventilator facility to take care of patients with cardiac emergency.
