Even as the death toll triggered by dengue in Delhi rose further on Wednesday, the government inked an agreement to procure 110 ambulances, and announced implementation of a three-pronged ‘home to hospital care’ scheme.
At the conclusion of a cabinet meeting at the Secretariat, the government approved implementation of a free ‘home to hospital care’ emergency medical response ambulance services for the people through the Centralised Accident & Trauma Services (CATS). According to a senior government official, the project involved three major components including procurement of 110 (100 equipped with basic life support and 10 with advanced life support) ambulances, setting up of a modern control room, and outsourcing of operation and maintenance of CATS ambulance services.
“The agreement for establishment and maintenance of the control room was signed with Wipro 10 days ago, while an agreement for the procurement of the ambulances was signed between CATS and Bafna Healthcare Pvt. Ltd. in addition to Tata Motors Limited (consortium partners) in the presence of Health Minister Satyendar Jain on Tuesday,” said a senior government official, adding that these were scheduled to be delivered within a little over three months.
According to the official, the ‘home to hospital care’ scheme was proposed to begin on March 1, 2016, with the three separate components being expected to be in place by February 28, 2016.
The ambulances will be equipped with self-collapsible trolley stretcher, spine board, scoop stretcher, automated external defibrillator (AED), and oxygen delivery system. The advanced life support ambulances will also be equipped with transport ventilator & defibrillator-cum-monitor, syringe pump, and lifesaving injectables.
“The prototype ambulance has been approved by the committee under the chairmanship of the Director Health Services with experts from MoHFW (GOI), AIIMS (Delhi and Patna), UNDP, Transport Department (Delhi), government hospitals, and HLL Lifecare Limited,” the official added.
