THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: With demand growing, the district authorities have brought in 200 cabs, school buses in addition to ambulances to ensure timely transportation of patients under distress. There are also plans to customise 100 contract carriages and equip them medically
The demand for emergency transportation of Covid patients is increasing day by day in the district as daily cases surge exponentially prompting the authorities to mobilise cabs and even customise small contract carriages for the same. With a large majority of around 38,100 active Covid patients being in home isolation, the demand for transportation has also gone up. According to health officials, timely transportation and medical care are the key to saving lives.
At present, 340 ambulances have been deployed in the district for transporting Covid patients. However, according to officials, it’s impossible to operate all vehicles and depend on the availability of ambulance drivers. Currently, around 170 to 180 ambulance drivers are involved in patient transportation in the district.
In an effort to avoid delay and ensure timely transportation, the authorities have opened taluk-level control rooms at Neyyattinkara, Nedumangad, Thiruvananthapuram and Attingal to cover the entire district. According to officials, these control rooms are in addition to the war room at the district collectorate. In addition, the authorities have mobilised around 200 cabs for transporting Covid patients with minor symptoms (category A).
“We cannot use cabs for transporting patients who are severely ill who fall under category C. The cabs are shielded and patients having mild symptoms who need to get transportation to CFLTCs or DCCs (Domiciliary Care Centres) would be transported using cabs. Shielded taxis are being used at airports since the first wave. We have used less than 20 cabs so far. Even now, we could manage with just ambulances. There is no crisis,” said an official in charge of transportation of the patients.
Well-mapped process
The details of the patients are being passed on to the sub-control rooms at the taluk level from the war room at the district collectorate. “We have a Google spreadsheet and the information is shared. The tahsildar and a Motor Vehicles Department official are deployed at the control room for assigning the vehicles based on the requirement of the patients. If the condition of a patient is severe, the war room will directly deploy the ambulance and will not wait to transfer the call to the taluk-level control room,” said an official.
According to officials, resource crunch is one prime reason for the delay in transporting patients. Despite having all these systems in place, patients who make the SOS calls are forced to wait for several hours to get transportation.
“We have exhausted more than 80 per cent of our resources. We cannot use a single driver for the entire day and we always need more resources. The demand is more and the day before, we had made 223 trips. Right now, there is no crisis and we are devising a fall-back plan if the existing system reaches the breaking point,” said the official.According to officials, the district is utilising four types of ambulances which are allocated based on the severity of the conditions of the patients.
CONTRACT CARRIAGES TO BE MODIFIED
Anticipating a steep surge in cases in the coming days, the authorities have already initiated steps to hire small contract carriages for transporting patients. The plan is to customise the contract carriage and equip them medically to transport severely ill patients needing oxygen support. The authorities have identified around 100 contract carriages for the purpose. “It’s part of our contingency plan and if the cases surge further, we need alternative plans in addition to ambulances. We have already modified a couple of carriages and will modify more if demand arises. We have full cooperation from the trade unions,” said an official.
Control room numbers: 9188610100, 1077,
0471-2779000
Tele-consultations:
1056, 0471-2552056
Oxygen war
room numbers: 7592939426, 7592949448