108 preferred for child births

As many as 3,775 child deliveries have been successfully carried out in the ambulance itself as at the end of February this year. There are twelve such ambulances in Kolar district - one each in Byrakur, Gownipalli, Masti, Nangali, Kolar, Bangarpet, Srinivaspur, Mulbagal, Malur, Kolar Gold Fields and Kamasamudra.

The facility has so far received a total of 10,401 calls since its launch in November 2008. Forty-seven per cent of the total calls related to child births and all such calls have been successfully attended in the vehicle itself. Assistance has been rendered in various category of emergency cases. The break-up is as follows: Suicide - 285, stomach ache - 730, breathing problems - 388, cardiac problems - 347 and others - 1,341.

There are eight 108 ambulance vehicles in the neighbouring Chikkaballapur district - one each in Chintamani, Gudibande, Shidlaghatta, Manchenahalli, Chikkaballapur, Gauribidanur, Bagepalli and Chelur.

 Out of the 8,128 distress calls received till the end of February, 2,739 relate to child births, all of which have been attended to, successfully.

Apart from this, 6,636 instances of medical emergencies, 1,001 cases of road accidents, 158 suicides, 757 cases of stomach ache, 286 cases of breathing problems, cardiac problems - 153 and other emergency cases - 1,151.

Forty-six per cent of the calls related to child births.

BP monitoring

Apart from attending to medical emergencies, the vehicles are also being used to create health awareness in rural parts. Blood pressure check-up camps are being held in both districts for the past one month.

Handbills giving details of the services offered under the scheme are being distributed, Rahul Kammar, the district manager for Kolar-Chikkaballapur, told Deccan Herald.

Two teams work in shifts for the round-the-clock medical service. There will be two medical technicians and a driver in each shift. The hi-tech ambulance has 160 varieties of medicines, oxygen cylinder, ventilator, air cooler and other equipment to handle any sort of emergency, Rahul added.

Hoax calls

Kammar, however, said that creating awareness on constructive use of the services has become a challenge, given the number of hoax calls. The call centre meant for the service receives as many as 37,000 calls across the State of which only 1,500 call for attention.

“Special programmes are being held for students, police personnel and Asha workers to create awareness on the effective use of the services,” Kammar said. Agricultural labourers number more in both districts. The people in rural parts should make more use of the facility. However, it has been observed that the service is being utilised only for child birth cases. All such calls have been successfully attended and people are reposing confidence in the service, he stated.

Additional vehicles

 Rahul Kammar said that given the number of ambulances was it was not possible to provide service to all the callers. He added that it order to cater to the needs 2 vehicles in Kolar and 3 vehicles in Chikkaballapur district would be pressed into service. This would help us  serve more people, he added.