Kids to get a peek into how ambulance system works

The Delhi government’s Health Department is planning to tie up with schools to give children first-hand knowledge of how the control room of the CATS ambulance service works.

The Delhi government along with private tech company Wipro is setting up a state-of-the-art control room in Laxmi Nagar, which is likely to be operational in two months.
The modern control room is so designed that it has a gallery view. Children will be brought to the Centralised Accident and Trauma Services (CATS) control room to see the entire process of the staff allocating ambulances when an accident or any other emergency is reported.

The screens installed in the control room area will also show patients’ details and the hospitals they are being taken to.

Currently, the control room functions out of the CATS headquarters building on Bela Road and is not well equipped to handle more than 1,000 calls a day.

The control room receives only around 700 calls daily from across the city.
“The department will tie up with schools so that children can be brought to the control room as part of the educational process. We will tie up with the Education Department once the modern control room starts functioning,” a senior Health Department official said.

“While children will be able to see the ongoing activities from the opposite side of the glass barrier, the staff will not be able to see them,” the official said. “This will also help them improve their understanding on how they should make way for an ambulance or people in need later in their lives,” the official added.

The modern control room is equipped to handle at least 5,000 calls daily. “The system is configured to deal with at least 50,000 calls daily. However, we are anticipating 5,000 calls in the first phase,” said another official handling the CATS project.

Entry to the control room will be restricted through biometrics. Screens set up in the control room will flash real-time data on the ambulances allotted and their locations.
Smartphone users will be able to download a mobile application though which they can call the control room and the patient’s location will be automatically relayed to the staff there.

For those who do not have the mobile application, the patients or their attendants have to inform the staff of the location where they need the ambulance.