Kakinada: All villages, except tribal areas in the State, will be covered by the 108 emergency service by April-end, according to MSR Swaroop, zonal integrator and P.S. Prasada Raju, district coordinator, respectively of the Emergency Management and Research Institute (EMRI).

At a press conference here on Tuesday, they said the EMRI along with the National Rural Health Mission would introduce 17 more rural life- saving ambulances on Wednesday.

At present, the EMRI was operating three basic life-saving ambulances based at Kakinada, Rajahmundry and Amalapuram.

Under the expansion programme, they said, these 17 ambulances would extend their services to 51 mandals.

Trained personnel

For effective coverage, three mandals were made as one segment and the ambulance would be stationed at the central place.

Each ambulance would be fully equipped with emergency medical implements and medicines and manned by a trained and well-qualified medical technician and auxiliary nursing midwife.

Tracking equipment

They claimed that each ambulance's movements would be monitored round the clock with the automatic location tracking equipment installed at the 108 call centre in Hyderabad.

Soon after receipt of call, the ambulance rushes to the place of emergency and provide the first aid and admit patients at the nearest primary health centre, community health centre or the area hospital within half an hour.

They said that the organisation had received 13,550 calls to 108 service in the district during the past 11months and had been able to save 351 lives.

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