JOIN USDeputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Sunday warned motorists that they would be fined Rs 2,000 if they do not give way to ambulances rushing patients to hospitals.
“It’s important for people to be sensitive towards such emergency situations,” said Sisodia while flagging off off a fleet of ambulances equipped with state-of-the-art gadgetry.
Sisodia said each ambulance will have a front camera to record the vehicles in front of it.
“Those who do not give way to a rushing ambulance will have to pay Rs 2,000 as penalty,” said Sisodia, who also inaugurated a high-tech control room, capable of handling as many as 5,000 medical distress calls daily.
The Deputy Chief Minister said the AAP government plans to include fire brigade vehicles and disaster management vehicles in the real time monitoring system at the control room for ambulances running on city roads.
“This is the first time in India that such a world-class technology-led control room has been set up. It will coordinate the working of the ambulances and provide real-time management of emergency situations for people of Delhi,” he said.
The Centralized Ambulance Trauma Services (CATS) (a Society under Health Department, GNCTD) is the nodal agency for the project to provide free emergency ambulance services to people of Delhi.
CATS has procured 110 new ambulances (100 basic life support, 10 advanced life support ambulances). The ambulances have all life-saving equipment as per the guidelines.
A modern control room has been established in Shakarpur dispensary, which is the nerve centre. The control room has provisions to identify the location of the caller, SMS confirmation to the caller, link to track the ambulance allotted, GPS, Computer Aided Dispatch etc. Each ambulance has been provided mobile tablets for easy navigation and to enter the patient details enabling advance notice to the hospitals about patients.
In order to provide timely response to citizens, the operation and maintenance of the ambulance services has been outsourced with SLAs. The interest of the existing regular, contractual staff of CATS has not only been fully protected but also enhanced. All paramedics will be trained as per the National Skill Development Council Standards./Cathal McNaughton.