Ambulance services hit in Karnataka; Bommai directs Health Minister to resolve issue

Due to technical glitches, the people have not been getting any response from 108, the dedicated helpline for ambulance services

Patients across Karnataka were inconvenienced as 108, the ambulance service run by the Department of Health and Family Welfare, was hit due to a hardware issue at the helpline centre, officials said.

Scores of people had to depend on expensive private ambulances as staff in the government-run service were unable to receive phone calls from the public due to a technical glitch.

A free ambulance service, 108 is managed by nonprofit emergency service provider GVK-EMRI under a government contract. The 108 call centre has an automated system that allocates an ambulance within two minutes. The technical glitch increased the turnaround time to 6-7 minutes.

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Speaking to reporters on Sunday, Minister for Health and Welfare Family and Medical Education Dr K Sudhakar said there was some issue with the hardware, which GVK-EMRI had rectified. “Since the system is 15 years old, it is vulnerable to malware attacks,” he added.

The department asked ambulance drivers to respond to calls on their personal numbers by creating manual IDs and directed hospitals to accord priority to inter-facility transfers.

Calls to 108 were redirected to 112 to create manual IDs. Staff in the 112 call centre was also increased, Sudhakar said. “We are also utilising the 104 call centre to reduce the load on 108. We are likewise tracing missed calls,” the minister said.

The disruption in 108 prompted the Leader of the Opposition in Assembly Siddaramaiah to suggest that corruption was the main reason for the service lag. Sudhakar hit back: “Siddaramaiah doesn’t understand technical issues. He must understand the facts before commenting. Everything should not be seen through a political lens,” he said.

Technicians later resolved the motherboard issue. By late afternoon, calls were being processed normally. A DH reporter was able to connect to 108 late in the afternoon.