Bhubaneswar: The emergency medical service of 108 ambulances completed their seventh year in the state. The emergency service works towards transporting ailing patients in need of treatment to the nearest health centre to deliver timely treatment.
The service was started March 2013 with the aim to connect the people in distress to medical services. The service provider claims that it received a total of 34 million calls since its inception and tried its best to reach out to the people even in remote locations. Since the launch of 108 ambulance service in the state in March 2013, it has ferried and saved more than 27 lakh valuable lives.
The operator of the emergency service— Ziqitza Health Care limited which manages the ambulance traffic, last mile connectivity and handles the toll free calls from the patients— organised a special blood donation drive to mark the the day, Thursday.
The state head of the service provider of 108 ambulance Sabyasachi Biswal said, “We received about 34 million calls out of which 47 lakhs job ids were created to serve people. Our employee’s good work receives praise and accolades from many corners, whereas any dereliction of duty are dealt with exemplary actions.”
“The 108 emergency ambulance services operate in all 30 districts of Odisha through a fleet size of 512 ambulances, of which 92 ambulances are fully state funded. Out of these 388 ambulances have basic life-saving (BLS) facilities. 56 ambulances have many updated, modern, state-of-the-art facilities. 4 ambulances are kept as back up,” a statement from the emergency service provider said.
The service which connects patients to the health centres are also confronted with challenging issues like receiving around 700 fake calls per day while it handles close to 10,000 calls per day. Many a times the drivers of the ambulances have also faced attacks from the citizens in case their demands go against the norms of the service.
Celebrated social worker and Padma Shri D Prakash Rao participated in the event and encouraged the employees of the emergency service to continue their good work. He also boosted the morale of the youths who had come to the blood donation drive to mark the completion of seven years of the emergency service in the state.