The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : 108 to cover more areas

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Tuesday, Jul 01, 2008
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

108 to cover more areas

150 more ambulances added to the existing EMRI fleet

- Photo: P. V. Sivakumar

For health: K. Rosaiah, Minister for Finance, and Sambhani Chandrasekhar, Minister for Health, launching the expansion of 108 Emergency Medical Services from 502 to 652 ambulances at the Secretariat on Monday.

HYDERABAD: In a move to expand the ‘108’ services to cover more areas, the State government has added 150 more ambulances to the existing fleet.

Hyderabad region, covering Adilabad, Hyderabad, Karimnagar, Mahbubnagar, Medak, Nizamabad, Ranga Reddy and Warangal will get 40 new ambulances and Vijayawada region (Guntur, Khammam, Krishna, Nalgonda, Nellore and Prakasam) 48. Similarly, Visakhapatnam region (north coastal districts and East and West Godavari districts) will get 33 more ambulances and Tirupati region (Rayalaseema districts) the balance of 29. The service, which was brought under the umbrella of Rajiv Arogya Sri scheme, is presently being operated through 502 ambulances attending 60,000 calls on an average every day. Health Minister Sambhani Chandrasekhar and Finance Minister K. Rosaiah flagged off the new ambulances in the Secretariat on Monday.

Operational cost

The ‘108’ service was launched by Emergency Management and Research Institute (EMRI), a non-profit organisation, that made initial investment and provided infrastructure and technology though the government bears the operational cost which works out to Rs. 1.12 lakh a month on each ambulance. As many as 2,578 private hospitals have been roped in to accept emergency victims free of cost under the scheme. An average of nearly 5,000 emergencies are attended each day, said a press release.

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