New action plan to ensure all people in Uttar Pradesh benefit from ambulance services

A step towards making the state health and medical infrastructure more robust, the Uttar Pradesh government has decided to adopt a new strategy fostering better ambulance services.

As per reports, the state has drafted a district wise action plan to ensure that all citizens are able to get the benefit of accessory medical aid and transportation facility. For this, all district magistrate have been directed to closely monitor the arrangements and operations of ambulances in areas under their jurisdiction.

The facility of ambulance services under UP's 102 and 108 emergency services have been recognised as crucial in providing expert medical care and assistance to patients enroute hospitals and care centres. In most cases, first aid provided in the ambulance helps mitigate critical cases.

Over 5-crore patients have been admitted to hospitals in Uttar Pradesh by means of ambulances, a press statement by GVK EMRI, the company which runs the 102 and 108 services, read. This includes 83,92,175 pregnant women and 5,32,735 heart patients.

Keeping this extensive demand of ambulances in mind, the state aims to augment facilities to foster refined services by-

• Improving the response time of the ambulances

• Training ambulance staff to adopt sensitive approach towards parents or guardians of children

• Equipping ambulances with life-saving equipment

• Making sure that the ambulance has all essential first-aid resources to treat injuries and tackle urgent cases

This strategy is being helmed by the state's vision to ensure that no family, patient, guardian or child suffers any inconvenience due to unfit ambulance support.

Notably, there are 2,270 ambulances under 102 and 2,200 under 108 services which will upgraded accordingly to meet the new directives.

The government has further asserted strict action against any person, group or organisation found guilty in cases of a sudden death due to unavailability of ambulance or improper equipment.