In an effort to improve the emergency medical ambulance services which often come to light for bad reasons, the Odisha government has integrated the 102 and 108 helpline services and brought it into one platform- 108.
Till now, 102 ambulances was meant for transporting pregnant women and children upto 1 year to hospitals while 108 ambulances are engaged in ferrying all other category of patients.
As the 102 call centres have now become redundant with the merger of the two ambulance services, process has already started to close down the centres, informed 108 ambulance project head, Sabyasachi Biswal.
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“Two types of ambulance services were operating in Odisha- 102 which was meant for transporting pregnant women and children upto 1 year and another is 108 emergency ambulance which was available for all category of patients. Now both the services have been integrated and become 108 emergency service. Henceforth, citizens from every nook and corner of the State can avail the emergency ambulance service by dialling 108,” said Biswal said.
He said training will be imparted to ASHA workers across the State about the new service.
It can be mentioned here that the 102 ambulance was being used to ferry pregnant women and children up to 1 year and 108 ambulance was launched in 2013 to shift other patients to hospitals.
At present, 1124 ambulances are operating in the State while six boat ambulances are in service in remote areas.