By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: To extend its free emergency services to the people of the state, the ‘Wheel of Hope”-108 Emergency Response Services Ambulance will be adding twenty four more ambulances to its existing fleet out of which seven were launched on Tuesday.
The seven ambulances procured through National Rural Health Mission were launched on Tuesday at a programme held at Directorate of Health Services here which were flagged off by Chief Minister, Mukul Sangma.
“The launch of the new vehicles will enable NRHM to increase the area of coverage thereby attending to more emergency cases”, said Dr Mukul speaking on the occasion.
Among the 7 ambulances launched on Tuesday, one each equipped with Advance Life Saving (ALS) system will be stationed at Shillong and Tura for interstate transfer from Shillong to Guwahati and Tura to Guwahati while the remaining five one each equipped with Basic Life Saving (BLS) would be located at Shillong, Umsning, Baghmara, Dadenggiri and Rari Health Institutions.
The remaining 17 ambulances will be launched in the next 1-2 months.
The present strength of the ambulances operates from thirty bases all over the state and adding of 24 more to this existing fleet will further increase the services to the people.
“With this addition, Meghalaya is amongst the first state where NRHM is operating to have a ratio of 1: 55, 000 coverage which is close to the World Health Organisation (WHO) standards”, informed Commissioner and Secretary of Health and Family Welfare, DP Wahlang.
Referring to the launching of the new ambulances, Meghalaya Chief Secretary WMS Pariat said these are the experiments taken up by the government which has succeeded and will go along way in serving the public better.
However, referring to the cases of the recent attacks on the SPTS buses, Pariat lamented the fact that where services are meant to be provided cannot actually be provided due to the presence of some miscreants yearning to destroy whatever were offered to them.
“The government loses in financial aspects but the real loss is the public, they will be greatly hampered by such activities as these services were actually meant for them and not for the government”, added the Chief Secretary.
According to the performance data of the GVK EMRI since launch till date, a total of 7,23,122 calls were received out of which 55,591 were EM calls, 40,333 emergencies, 32,662 were availed, 38,999 medical emergencies, 1,288 police emergencies, 46 fire emergencies, 3,821 lives saved and 280 deliveries by 108.
Meanwhile, the emergency specific breakup statistic since launch till date comes out to 8,120 for pregnancy, 3,252 trauma (Vehicular), 5,787 acute abdomen, 868 cardiac, 1,983 trauma (non-vehicular), 1,015 pediatrics, 530 assault, 173 diabetes, 4,968 fever/infection, 193 neo natal, 1,229 respiratory and 338 stroke.