In Tamil Nadu for rescuing disabled destitutes old ambulances would be used
Posted on: 12/Feb/2018 9:58:42 AM
Ambulances play an important role in transporting the people who are badly injured or having health issues to the hospitals for their treatment. It is known that there are many ambulances lying idle in the backyard of the state health department.
The latest news is around 300 such ambulances that are lying idle would be utilized for rescuing the disabled destitute. It is now confirmed that this project would begin in another two months of time and for a year it would be done on pilot basis.
The above mentioned was decided in the meeting that took place last week between the officials belonging to National Health Mission, commissionerate for differently able plus many NGOS working for mentally ill people. It must be noted that for the sake of providing man power for these ambulances the department of health has roped in its 104 medical counselling helpline and the state branch of Red Cross Society.
According to an official it is now clear that helpline could be contacted if anyone comes across a mentally sick person on the road. Then this helpline would alert the nearby ambulance and the mentally sick person would be taken for treatment. This official also hinted about the presence of a counsellor for assistance inside the ambulance.
This counsellor would be screening the mentally ill patient and then this patient would be taken to Kilpauk based Institute of Mental Health or IMH for sake of any further evaluation.
It is now said that this mentally ill patient would be kept for observation for a time of 10 days at the IMH Kilpauk in Chennai and his or her family would be traced by the police personnel. Network of psychiatric homes is also being formed by the department now. It is known that ambulances after being used for 6 years or if they have travelled as much as 2.5 lakh km would be taken off their fleet. This decision would be taken by a committee formed by the department of state health transport after the inspection of these ambulances. In cases of engine being faulty the ambulances would be deemed unfit for use and this would be decided by the team.
It is important to mention that there are 300 ambulances are lying at the backyards of state of health departments in Tambaram in Chennai plus in Trichy. These ambulances would now be utilized for other purposes as they lack the power for emergencies.
Established in the year 1978 HelpAge India is a non-profit based organization that is doing superb work for the disadvantaged older peoples. Mr R. Muthukrishnan of this organization expressed his thoughts and said his organization gets at least 5 calls in a day asking help for mentally sick persons.
He also spoke about the lack of ambulances to serve these mentally ill persons requiring help and how it is not possible to reach out for all the mentally ill persons.
The non-emergency medical needs of psychiatric patients in the shelters for homeless would also be taken care by these renovated ambulances and this was confirmed by Mr. Kotteshwara Rao belonging to the Schizophrenia Research Foundation.
