Pune has only 65 dedicated ambulances for Covid treatment

Pune: The central team during its visit to the most affected districts in Maharashtra found that Pune has only 65 dedicated Covid-19 ambulances

Pune: The central team during its visit to the most affected districts in Maharashtra found that Pune has only 65 dedicated Covid-19 ambulances. Pune has over one lakh active cases as the progressive count continues to go beyond 6.51 lakh and 8,658 deaths due to the infection.

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The district is reporting about 12,000 cases and with only 65 dedicated ambulances in place the situation looks dire. The administration has acquired more private ambulances too, however, the demand remains higher than the supply.

The central team in its report found that Pune has fewer ambulances than Nagpur with 137, Satara with over 100 ambulances, Latur with 117 ambulances, Buldhana with 70, Beed with 72 and Jalgaon with 161 ambulances. Pune has the highest number of active cases in the country and is possibly one of the worst affected urban areas in the world and so ambulances provide crucial services in the pandemic.

Since Covid is primarily a respiratory infection, the ambulance has to be equipped with oxygen supply and qualified staff to provide valuable intervention during the “golden hour”.

Dr Dnyaneshwar Shelke, chief operating officer of BVG group, 108 said, “Under 108, Pune district has 82 ambulances of which the city has 42 ambulances. Of the total 82, we have 39 for Covid management with necessary medical aid. However, the local administration has also acquired many ambulances under various programmes. After the first wave, the Pune zilla parishad acquired 52 ambulances which were integrated under 108. We have multiple ambulances which are also used to transfer Covid positives from home to Covid care centre or from Covid care centre to a higher medical facility. Also, these newly acquired ambulances are not counted under 108, but are used for control room mechanism and we provide coordination.”