ELURU: Come January 1, 2016 and an exclusive free ambulance service for pregnant women in the state is likely to be in place as the state government proposes to introduce yet another ambulance service on the lines of the ‘108’ services, according to sources.
Disclosing this to Express here on Thursday, they added that the new service would be named ‘102’ and would be used to exclusively to transport pregnant women to hospitals and back. They said that the new service -- to be introduced in phases all over the district and the state -- would also be run by the government in partnership with the GVK-EMRI - just as in the case of ‘108’.
The sources pointed out that at present the ‘108’ ambulance service was being used to transport pregnant women to hospitals for delivery and back to their houses later. However, since the ‘108’ ambulance service also had to attend to various calls like those pertaining to road accidents and other emergencies, the government felt the need for an exclusive ambulance service for pregnant women, they added. Hence, the introduction of the ‘102’ ambulance service, which would also be free.
Stating that the new service was expected to be launched on Jan 1, 2016, the sources added that the government had already started recruiting the necessary staff and that 18 pilots had already been appointed in West Godavari district.
The sources said that the ‘102’ ambulances would serve women who were in the 7th , 8th or 9th month of pregnancy and who needed to be rushed to diagnostic centres for scanning or X-rays or to hospitals for delivery. After delivery, the ambulances would drop back the women at their houses, they added.
At present 70 vehicles were being run under the ‘108’ ambulance service in the district, they said and added that likewise, the ‘102’ ambulance service would have adequate number of vehicles. In the first phase, the ‘102’ ambulances would be deployed at the Area Hospitals in Eluru, Tadepalligudem, Kovvru, Bhimavaram and Tanuku. The service would be extended to Cluster and Primary Health Centers in the subsequent phases, the sources said.
A call center would be set up soon at the state capital to link up with ‘102’ ambulances, the sources said and added that the main aim of the new ambulance service was to curb the mortality rates of pregnant women and infants.