‘Life savers’ head for Civil Hospital

Soon, the government hospital in the city will get a special ambulance equipped with advanced life support (ALS) system to ferry critically-ill patients. Divya Sethi reports.

Soon, the government hospital in the city will get a special ambulance equipped with advanced life support (ALS) system to ferry critically-ill patients.

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NK Gupta, the deputy director of National Rural Health Mission, said: “The government has already purchased the ambulances. Now the advanced life-saving equipment is being installed and in one month we would be in a position to give the same to hospitals. There are 17 ambulances and one ambulance with high-tech ALS would be given to each district.”

Presently, the civil hospital has 9 ambulances but neither of them is fitted with life-saving equipment.

One can avail the services of an ambulance by dialling 0124-102. The control room telephone number is functional 24 hours on all seven days.

“On receiving a call, the operator informs the nearest ambulance which then take the patient to the nearest hospital or health centre,” he said.

Though the hospital charges R7 per kilometre for ambulance service but for some categories of patients such as pregnant women, victims of road accidents, below poverty line cardholders and patients from notified slum areas have been exempted from the ambulance charges.