BENGALURU: In order to boost the health sector of Karnataka, ICATT Foundation (International Critical-care Air Transfer Team), an air ambulance service provider, is partnering with the state's health department to offer free service for government-referred patients.
Earlier the plan was to work with the 108 ambulance service, but after it ran into contract issues, the idea was dropped and the partnership with the government directly was intensified, said an Icatt official.
ICATT is one of the participants in the Global Investors Meet (GIM), looking at more partnerships.
Dr Shalini Nalwad, Chairperson, ICATT Foundation, told The New Indian Express that work on this direction with the government is being undertaken with the infrastructure already in place and within a week, 2-3 airlifts will be done.
Officials in the government said, “Even as the government will offer the services free of cost, a proposal has been given to the government of around Rs 100 crore to be undertaken for this. Each service, at the moment, costs around Rs 2-2.5 lakh. The government had already made an announcement in the budget, but the amount was not realised.”
The government official said that procedural issues are being resolved for the project to be executed. So far 1,500 airlifts have been done in five years and the count is to add more, especially patients who need urgent service.