As per speed analysis of ambulances, the ongoing roadworks in Chennai have delayed the average response time of the ambulances by 75%. Shocking, but true!!
From just 8 minutes on the normal roads during the peak hours, the response time has gone to 14minutes on the roads where roadworks have been going on. This has been mentioned by GVK-EMRI. It is known that the TN government has outsourced running of 108 ambulances services for the health dept to GVK-EMRI.
From January 2023 onwards, the average response time in Chennai district for ambulances was between 7 and 8. Mr. Selvakumar, state head for GVK-EMRI spoke about how the delay could be crucial especially in life threatening situations. He shed light on how the ambulance pilots talk with family members( while on the way_ before picking them up. The good news is that no lives were lost due to the delay in the ambulances. Out of 1300 ambulances that operate in TN, Chennai alone has got more than 70%.
The fleet managers identify the hotspots and redeploy the ambulances to better locations. Massive violation of the traffic rules is often an issue for the ambulances in Chennai. This was brought out by a senior pilot of an ambulance. Just recently, this senior pilot got stuck at Arcot Road in Vadapalani in Chennai for about 10 minutes. Truth is that here the entire road has been converted to one way due to metro works and two wheelers and auto drivers violate traffic rules.
To ease the road traffic, the health dept has been working with the traffic police personnel. The traffic policemen help in the easy movement of the ambulances mostly except in places like Keelkattalai etc. This was mentioned by an ambulance pilot.