Pvt firm in talks with govt for heli ambulances

The air emergency service industry is pushing the Centre and the state government to introduce a policy to fund helicopter air ambulances, which they say will save the lives of thousands of highway accident victims every year.

“The death toll on the highways is high,” said Dr Shalini Nalwad, co-founder of the International Critical Care Air Transfer Team (ICATT), an air ambulance service in South India which has been primarily using fixed-wing aircraft since 2016 to transport priority care patients from rural areas to metropolises for treatment.

The statement is backed by statistics from the National Crimes Records Bureau (NCRB), which has registered a steady increase in the number of road accident fatalities since 2011.

In a recent statement by Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari, a death toll of “1,50,000 people” was estimated, with the minister adding that “65% of victims are in the age group of 18 to 35 years.”

NCRB data from 2015 shows that 33.4% of these deaths were on national highways, with 37.6% being on rural roads.

ICATT said that it is currently in talks with the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways and with the Karnataka’s health department to not only introduce three twin-engined helicopters to be used in the Helicopter Emergency Medical Services (HEMS), but also help with the creation of infrastructure to enable helicopters to ferry patients to emergency care hospitals.

According to sources, negotiations are on with the Centre to link the air ambulance service with the Ayushman Bharat insurance scheme, while also suggesting that the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) increase the toll on vehicles to garner funds, which would be used to “insure” every
motorist and passenger using national highways.

One of the proponents of this measure is Mala Prasad, who was part of the team that worked on the government’s universal health insurance scheme from which the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana was created.

“By increasing the toll charges on highways by Re 1, air ambulance services can be funded and critical care can be afforded to victims for the first 24 hours,” Mala said, adding that several insurance companies were interested in the proposal. “They have a policy called Rasta Apatti Kawach hich can be tweaked to include HEMS. A model policy has also been suggested,” she said.

In Karnataka, talks are on with the Department of Health and Family Welfare. Principal Health Secretary Jawaid Akhtar could not be reached for comment.