Who introduced 108 ambulance in tamil nadu

Tamil Nadu, Chennai, 31/08/2020 : COVID-19 : New 108 Ambulance service lined up at Kamarajar Salai after inauguration by Chief Minister Eddapadi K. Palaniswami (not in the picture) at State Secretariat in Chennai on Monday, during the 158th day of nationwide lockdown imposed in the wake of deadly novel coronavirus pandemic. Photo: B. Jothi Ramalingam / The Hindu At least 2,200 COVID-19 patients are brought to hospitals across the State every day by dedicated ambulances of the 108 network. The network, which presently operates 210 ambulances for COVID-19 patients, is all set to add more in two days. “Our focus now is mainly on patients who require hospitalisation,” M. Selvakumar, State head of operations, GVK EMRI, that operates the 108 ambulances, said. Of the total 1,303 vehicles in the State, 210 are specially run for COVID-19 patients. Of these, 40 cover patients in Chennai. As many as 5,200 persons use the ambulance service in a day. “Of these, nearly 2,200 are those who have tested positive for COVID-19, and are critical and in need of hospitalisation. Apart from COVID-19, our regular services remain more or less the same,” he said. “We transport COVID-19 patients from anywhere to a hospital. It could be from their homes to the hospital or through the COVID-19 control room. If a person at a COVID-19 Care Centre is critical, we shift them to a hospital immediately,” he said. Mr. Selvakumar said they were all set to add more vehicles to the dedicated fleet for COVID-19 ...

The paramedics would continuously observe dilation of mothers and if dilation reaches a peak, the paramedics would ask pilot of the ambulance to stop the vehicle before the patient tries to push the baby out, the official said. He added that in order to ease deliveries, ambulances are being fitted with warmer light, suction and knife. “Imagine that when the Tamil Nadu Health System Project (TNHSP) operated such ambulance in minimum numbers in September 2008, there was not much awareness on the delivery cases in ambulances. However, awareness on 108 ambulance services has reached every nook and corner nowadays and it bears testimony to the fact that the number of delivery in ambulances has reached such a high number since then,” said another official.

Uma Maheswari, Project Director, Tamil Nadu Health Systems Project. Pic: Laasya Shekhar In the ambulance services in the city , Citizen Matters focused on the challenges and memorable moments in the lives of ambulance crew serving the city and state. Running an ambulance service is truly exciting work. It is a heart filling service that includes saving the lives of strangers in the quickest way possible, says Uma Maheswari, IAS, Project Director, Tamil Nadu Health Systems Project, Government of Tamil Nadu. 108 ambulance services are operated under the Public Private Partnership framework by GVK EMRI (Emergency Management and Research Institute), a not-for-profit organisation and the Tamil Nadu government. In a candid interview with Citizen Matters, Uma Maheswari, who leads operations for Tamil Nadu, explains the day-to-day challenges faced by the team and various projects in the pipeline. She provides insights into the measures required to be followed by patients’ families and hospitals, so that more lives can be saved. Excerpts from the interview: How many ambulances operate in Chennai? How is the demand? A total of 930 ambulances run across Tamil Nadu, with 50 of them being operational in Greater Chennai. As the demand has been growing each day, the state government has been increasing the fleet consistently. On an average, the vehicles run around 47 lakh kilometres during a month, cutting across the entire state. How many calls do you receive on an average during a day,...

• JSSK started as a Pilot Project in Tamil Nadu by TNHSP and operated through IRCS-TNB on 01.11.2013. • G.O. MS. No.396 Health & Family Welfare (EAPI/I) Department, dated 30.12.2015 issued from Government of Tamil Nadu. • Call Center Toll Free Number 102. • Currently 99 vehicles are in operation covering all 38 districts in DME and DMS Institutions. • Drop Back vehicle can transport Mother with babies upto one year. Achievement of Performance (2018 to 2019) S.No. DISTRICT April’2018 to Mar’2019 Vehicle deployed Hospital Delivery Delivery cases transported Transported Other cases Total No. of Cases transported % 1 KANYAKUMARI 5 6459 5640 5076 10716 87% 2 DHARMAPURI 6 10742 8743 1402 10145 81% 3 KARUR 5 4649 3661 285 3946 79% 4 DINDIGUL 4 9956 7197 1136 8333 72% 5 VILLUPURAM 9 15677 9980 4161 14141 64% 6 VELLORE 11 24011 12180 2965 15145 51% 7 TUTICORIN 5 9274 4609 1265 5874 50% 8 THANJAVUR 9 20702 10156 3237 13393 49% 9 CUDDALORE 5 11378 5453 2941 8394 48% 10 RAMANATHAPURAM 3 6421 2983 1289 4272 46% 11 ERODE 3 5495 2464 449 2913 45% 12 THENI 5 11561 5049 1236 6285 44% 13 MADURAI 9 18862 8134 1504 9638 43% 14 TIRUCHIRAPPALLI 8 14114 6021 3238 9259 43% 15 COIMBATORE 5 12196 5189 1284 6473 43% 16 THE NILGIRIS 2 2590 1058 344 1402 41% 17 TIRUPPUR 5 8216 3336 1223 4559 41% 18 PERAMBALUR / ARIYALUR 5 8949 3521 361 3882 39% 19 NAGAPATTINAM 4 7547 2967 1222 4189 39% 20 NAMAKKAL 2 6004 2353 758 3111 39% 21 VIRUDHUNAGAR 3 9972 3864 1131 4995 39% 22 THIRUNELVELI 6 12431 4748 747 5495 ...

Realising these twin challenges at a time when the coronavirus is playing havoc with people’s lives, K “My plan was to buy an ambulance so that people could use it in an emergency. But I chose to convert my car for the time being as an ambulance van would cost a minimum of 5 lakh,” says Mahendran. A native of Pattukottai in Thanjavur district, the 44-year-old has made changes to his SUV to accommodate an oxygen cylinder. What spurred Mahendran to do his bit was the non-availability of 108 ambulance service in remote towns like Pattukottai in recent days due to the overwhelming number of Covid-19 cases. “While private ambulances and taxis are another option, they are charging heavily for their services these days,” says he. Hailing from Thamarankottai village, 10 km from Pattukottai, he was moved by the death of a 60-year-old woman in the village due to non-Covid complications on Sunday. The family could not arrange a vehicle to take her to hospital as no one was willing to come. “Jipmer in Puducherry is about 180km from Pattukottai. Another family from the village had to spend 15,000 to take a Covid-19 patient to the hospital a few days ago,” he adds.

“One Naught Eight” (108) has become a household name in Madurai district, thanks to the life-saving ambulance service offered in the last four years. Tamil Nadu government in partnership with (GVK Emergency Management & Research Institute) introduced the free-of-cost services in the district on November 4, 2008. With an increased fleet of 16 ambulances, the 108 service has handled 73,822 cases in the last four years. “Among the trauma (road accident, other accident) and poisoning cases of 27,361, at least 30 per cent of these cases are considered critical. We can say that the lives of these 30 per cent or over 8,200 people have been saved because of our services,” said Regional Manager of 108 Emergency Service, S.G.S. Lakshmanan. Initially, the service was launched with 13 ambulances. But, it has been increased to 16 ambulances now -- 12 of them with basic life care support, three of them with advanced life care support and one neonatal care. The number of cases handled has grown more than five times, from mere 450 cases handled in November 2008 to 2,200 cases in November 2012. The 108 ambulances have also helped to promote the Government’s effort in increasing institutionalised deliveries. “The number of pregnancy related cases have increased from 10 per cent to 25 per cent over four years,” Mr. Lakshmanan, said. Among them, 212 deliveries took place in the ambulances itself, including the delivery of four twins. He added that the common man could support the service by c...

Chennai: A woman was today appointed to drive an ambulance in Tamil Nadu, claimed to be the first in the country, as Chief Minister K Palaniswami flagged off 118 as part of an initiative to strengthen emergency services in the state. M Veeralakshmi was appointed as the driver of one of the newly launched '108' ambulances and it is a 'first' in the country, a government release said. Ninety ambulances equipped with life saving medical equipment, 10 high tech vehicles for use by 10 government blood banks for transporting blood collected in camps and 18 ambulances donated by an entertainment television channel group for anti-COVID tasks were flagged off. On March 24, Mr Palaniswami had announced in the Assembly that to further strengthen the 108 ambulance emergency services, 500 new ambulances will be dedicated to the state at a cost of about Rs 125 crore. To implement it, in the first phase, 90 ambulances and 10 blood collection vehicles, at an estimated cost of Rs 20.65 crore and Rs 3.09 crore respectively, were procured.