Bhubaneswar: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Wednesday dedicated 47 new Advanced Life Support (ALS) Ambulances to the people of Odisha through virtual mode.
Dedicating the new ambulances on the auspicious occasion of ‘Maha Bishuba Sankranti’ and ‘Odia New Year’, Patnaik expressed hope that these ambulances will meet the increasing demand for transportation of patients with advanced life support system.
He also expressed confidence that with the cooperation of people, the state can beat the second wave of COVID-19 as it was done last year.
In the wake of the second wave of COVID-19, the Chief Minister had directed for provision of more advanced life support ambulances to further boost the reach and scale of the emergency patient transportation. Accordingly, the state government had made provision for 47 new ALS ambulances.
These ambulances have been funded from various sources including MPLAD, CSR, DMF and OMBADC.
Of these 47 ALS ambulances, 28 will be managed under 108 emergency ambulance service and 19 will be deployed at the medical colleges and hospitals to facilitate emergency patient transportation at their level.
The state has been running emergency medical ambulance service since March 5, 2013. The current fleet comprises of 596 vehicles, of which 540 have Basic Life Support system and 56 have Advanced Life Support system. With the addition of these new ambulances, the total number of Advanced Life Support ambulances comes to 103.
These are running under 108 ambulance services covering all 30 districts to provide quality emergency care transport free of cost.
Additionally, a fleet of 500 Janani Express ambulances under Referral Transport Ambulance Service have been made operational in the state since July 14, 2014 to provide free referral transport services to pregnant women and sick infants.
Till now, over 62 lakh people have benefited from both 108 and Janani Express ambulance services in the state, an official said.
Besides, to provide transportation to the sick and injured in certain river locked areas of 4 districts namely Kendrapara, Kalahandi, Koraput and Malkangiri, the government has also sanctioned six boat ambulances.