The 108 emergency service was kept busy on New Year’s eve and government hospitals in the city saw a spike in their admissions.
There were a total of 51 ambulances, including 13 two-wheeler ones stationed at various points in the city, with a total of 924 across the State.
“GPS and wireless were enabled, and we worked together with the city traffic police,” an official said.
The Government Royapettah Hospital saw 155 cases between 7 p.m. on Sunday and 7 a.m. on Monday, a senior doctor said. “While this was lower than last year’s 200 cases, on a normal night we see about 40 to 50 cases,” he said. Of these, the majority were falls and accidents — 70 were falls and 63 were road traffic accidents. Eight patients were admitted.
At the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital (RGGGH), there were 78 cases between 7 p.m. and 7 a.m., but only five received out-patient treatment, while the remaining were admitted, said Medical Superintendent K. Narayanaswamy.
The Government Stanley Hospital received 51 medico-legal cases, of which four were serious, while a majority consisted of abrasions and lacerations suffered from two-wheeler accidents, falls and assaults, said Dean, N. Ponnambalam.
There were 28 cases at the Government Kilpauk Hospital, of which 11 were referred to RGGGH said Dean P. Vasanthamani.
While two private hospitals saw an increase in the number of cases received on New Year’s night compared to their usual, two others said there were no significant rise in cases.
Across the State, 650 ambulances were sent out on calls between 11 p.m. and 2 a.m. “This was a 23% rise in utilisation from the previous year,” a senior official at the service said, adding that call volume during this time was also high. The dispatches, however, include all calls: accidents, pregnancy-related and other illnesses too. “On a normal night, our dispatches between 11 p.m. and 1 a.m. are around 300,” the official said.
