HYDERABAD: From November this year, the emergency response system of the Emergency Medical and Research Institute (EMRI) will be available all over the State.

EMRI, launched by Satyam Computers, have joined hands with the Government to provide emergency medicare to 28,000 villages. For this, it will operate close to 500 ambulances.

This decision was taken at the first advisory committee meeting on emergency health care held under the chairmanship of the Chief Secretary, J. Harinarayan here on Thursday.

Convenor of the advisory committee and Chief Executive of EMRI, Venkat Changavalli said that, the Government would shortly acquire 310 new ambulances under the Rural Child Health (RCH) programme. These, along with the 122 ambulances with the health department would be handed over to EMRI.

"We plan to begin the rural emergency health care services free of cost from November and cover all villages by June next," he said. The ambulances operated by the National Highways Authority of India and the 75 owned by EMRI too would be utilised. People can dial 108 from any corner of the State in case of medical emergency, he added.

To suit rural needs

The new ambulances would be modified to suit the needs of rural areas. They would be equipped to handle cases like pregnancy, snakebite and accidents.

While the Government would purchase ambulances, EMRI would recruit the driver and provide a trained para medical staff for each ambulance. Mr. Venkat said the EMRI call centre received more than 13,000 calls each day of which 500 were emergency case.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail