ITANAGAR, Jun 24: The 108 Emergency Response Ambulance Service Project under National Health Mission in Arunachal Pradesh has completed one year, catering to the need of various emergency cases dedicatedly.
The project which started on June 21, last year with 53 Basic Life Saving (BLS) ambulances, has increased the total number of ambulances to 88 within a year time, operating across the state.
The BLS ambulances are equipped with all basic life support equipment and emergency medicine besides having a trained medical technician and trained pilot as first responder.
Since its inception, the 108 ambulance served a total of 3417 cases till June 20 last, NHM officials informed here on Friday.
It has served various critical emergency cases including, 805 pregnancy related cases, 561 road accidents, 303 non-vehicular trauma cases and 185 Covid related cases with an average handling time of less than 90 seconds and an average response time of 12:52 minutes.
During the Covid pandemic, 14 such dedicated ambulances were pressed into service exclusively for lifting and transporting Covid patients.
Arunachal Pradesh is the only state providing 108 ambulances for inter-state transfer of patients in the country, the officials said.
Till now, a total of 804 patients have been transferred to various health facilities in Assam including, Assam Medical College and Hospital (AMCH) at Dibrugarh, Guwahati Medical College and Hospital (GMCH), Tezpur Medical College and NEIGRIMS at Shillong in Meghalaya.
The 108 ambulance of General Hospitals at Tezu and Bomdila, District Hospitals of Seppa, Namsai and Tawang besides Tomo Riba Institute of Health and Medical Sciences (TRIHMS) at Naharlagun, near here, have covered more than 20,000 kms in a year for transporting patients.
As many as 21 babies were delivered so far in the state inside the 108 ambulances, the officials added. (DIPR)
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