The State Government has decided to set up a comprehensive pre-hospital emergency medical service with the introduction of a fleet of ambulances to cover the entire State in phases.
The scheme will facilitate an integrated and comprehensive emergency health care management in the State providing high-end ambulance transportation system from the doorstep of the patient to appropriate care in a hospital.
A memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed between the Health and Family Welfare Department and Ziqitza Health Care Limited on Wednesday for implementation of the scheme, Odisha Emergency Medical Ambulance Service (OEMAS).
Secretary Pradipta Kumar Mohapatra signed the MoU on behalf of the Department in the presence of Health and Family Welfare Minister Prasanna Acharya.
In the first phase, 15 districts -- Sundargarh, Sambalpur, Angul, Dhenkanal, Keonjhar, Mayurbhanj, Balasore, Bhadrak, Jajpur, Cuttack, Puri, Khurda, Ganjam, Rayagada and Koraput -- will be covered. There will be one ambulance for every one lakh population.
This fleet will comprise both ‘Basic Life Support’ (BLS) and ‘Advance Life Support’ (ALS) ambulances. The mix of ALS and BLS will be in the proportion of 20:80. There will be 420 ambulances in total for the entire State.
In the first phase, 280 ambulances will be operationalised. Trauma corridor in Odisha across the national highways will also be covered in this phase. The aim is to provide quality transport in the shortest possible time during an emergency and ensure delivery of quality care across the chain of services with a proper management system.
The average response time of 20 minutes for urban areas and 35 minutes for rural locations will be kept as performance parameters. However, response time can be made more flexible depending upon the geographical conditions especially in KBK regions, for which the time may vary from 45-60 minutes. Mapping and defining of strategic positioning of the ambulances with route maps, motorable points and nearest catch points in case of non-motorable locations will also be done.
Chief Secretary B K Patnaik was present.