Tripura to launch 24X7 ambulance service

Tripura, under a central government scheme, will launch an emergency ambulance service to provide 24 hours facility to the patients, officials said Saturday.

The authorities will start the Emergency Medical Transport Service (EMTS) under the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) by the end of this year, officials said here.

“To launch the EMTS, 75 ambulances would be purchased at a cost of Rs.7 crore. Tripura would be the second state in northeast…after Assam to start this scheme,” Tripura NRHM director Samarjeet Bhowmik told reporters.

Bhowmik said: “There would be a control room in each district, sub-divisional and state headquarters to operate the scheme. Ambulance would reach out to the patients or any ailing people’s doorstep at any time if any one calls to these control room through a toll free telephone number.”

According to the scheme, the ambulances, fitted with basic life support system, will be run by a private operator.

The coordination will be done through a call centre. It will arrange for a doctor, paramedical staff as well as the driver for running the vehicle.

“The treatment will start once the patient boards the ambulance and it will continue till the patient reaches the nearby hospital,” the official added.

The official, said that the state government has asked the central health ministry to allow the Tripura government to run the scheme instead of a private operator.

“The union government’s response in this regards was yet to come,” the official said.