Before 2020, the average time taken for the ambulances to reach the spot in Chennai was 8 minutes and 40 seconds. Now, the response time of the ambulances has been reduced to just 7 minutes to go to the destination of the callers. This is now spoken in huge esteem.
The reduction in the response time for the ambulances were made possible due to more fleet strength and deploying them at near hotspots in Chennai. In 2020, before the Coronavirus infection pandemic there were just 52 ambulances in Chennai but now there are 79 ambulances in Chennai city. These include 53 basic life support ambulances, 10 advanced life support,3 neonatal ambulances and 13 bike ambulances.
It was brought out by Mr. Sandeep Kumar, district programme manager, 108 ambulance that prior to 2020 the average response time that is from the location of the ambulance to the destination of the callers was 8 minutes and 40 seconds. He explained that the number of ambulances have become more during the pandemic and ambulances have been deployed near the hotspots in Chennai. This has led to reduction in the average response time of the ambulances now to just 7 minutes.
It is superb to note that in the 14 years of operations of ambulances in Chennai the 108 ambulance network has catered to a caseload of 866978. In the network, road accident victims and pregnant women have benefited more. During the Coronavirus pandemic in chennai, many patients with Covid-19 infection were transported to the hospitals for treatment. These ambulances provided support for many patients with heart issues, strokes, respiratory issues and accidental poisoning etc.
Mr. Sandeep Kumar then spoke about how EMT or emergency medical technicians of 108 ambulance networks would have access to contact an emergency care physician or a medical officer to share the patient`s status. These EMTs would then follow the advice of the doctors. By this, patients would be shifted to the hospitals with superb care and without any delay.
The pre-arrival intimation details would be provided by EMT to various hospitals etc while shifting patients to the hospitals and by this the necessary protocols to treat the patients would be kept ready.