Bhubaneswar: The health department is all set to expand the services of 108 boat ambulances in different cut-off areas to boost delivery of health services in far-flung areas of the state.
Days after the services were well received in two blocks of Kendrapara, they will be rolled out in Koraput, Malkangiri and Kalahandi districts. Sabyasachi Biswal, State-Head Ziqitza Healthcare, the firm which manages the services, said there are six boat ambulances to serve people in cutoff areas. “We have two boat ambulances in Kendrapara, two in Malkangiri, one each in Koraput and Kalahandi. Two are working in Kendrapara and works on others will begin soon,” he said.
These boat ambulances offer life support systems like oxygen, anti-snake venom drugs, saline, suction machine, BP meter, stethoscope, stretchers, wheelchairs and others. “There are villages on other side of the Gupti river where motorable roads are either not present or get submerged during monsoons. In some areas, the road takes longer to reach hospitals. Through our service, we try to take patients in the shortest span of time to health centres,” Jagannath Behera, cluster leader, Kendrapara, 108 Ambulance Service told Orissa POST.
Manish Kumar, OP